Bridport: Salway Ash Primary School students win competition

Students at Salway Ash Primary School, Bridport, recently took part in the ‘Design For Change’ competition. 

Design for Change is a global initiative committed to encouraging change led by children, with the purpose of inspiring sustainability-led changes in their local community.

Headteacher Leif Overment said: “The children decided to tackle the problem of visitors to beaches leaving behind plastic beach toys which could cause harm to wildlife and the environment. 

“To tackle this, they designed and built two ‘Borrow Me Beach Boxes’ which have been installed at local beaches.”

Salway Ash Primary School pupils win Design For Change competition (Image: Leif Overment)

The project will now be shared and celebrated at a global Design For Change conference in Dubai.

One of the chosen locations for the Borrow Me Box was Freshwater Beach.

A spokesperson for Freshwater Beach Holiday Park said: "The Borrow Me Beach Box is a fantastic step towards this goal in helping visitors to Dorset reduce landfill, protect our coastline and consciously reduce the use of short life cycle plastic beach items.”

Pupils built the structure themselves and decorated it with instructions, learning woodworking, and many other skills from the project.

Entries from UK schools were judged by The Harmony Project and each project was assessed according to the process of developing the idea, deciding how to implement the idea, the impact on the audience that it was intended for and whether the project itself is sustainable.

In choosing the entry, a spokesman for The Harmony Project said : “Your Borrow Me Beach Box project was full of the creativity and enthusiasm that can lead to lasting change.

“We loved your idea because it can potentially help thousands of beach lovers and visitors every year.

“It’s simple but has the potential to create a huge and lasting impact.

“Schools around the country can replicate the idea which in turn benefits the environment, community and nature, whilst informing children about what can be done and empowering them to help our beaches and oceans.”