Winners of the 2025 Provost School Footprint Challenge Announced!

Ayr Academy have been crowned winners of the Provost School Footprint Challenge in a ceremony held at County Buildings, Ayr.

The Challenge is an annual competition that gives young people within local schools the chance to develop, implement and present solutions for reducing their schools' ecological footprint.

Now in its 9th year of running, the young people from each school are challenged to undertake projects to tackle climate change including reducing energy use, increasing recycling and litter picking, improving biodiversity, and raising awareness of each of these important issues.

Ayr Academy were awarded the top prize for their efforts in improving biodiversity and prioritising sustainable transport.

The young people discussed the ways they had implemented this including completing regular litter picks to keep the school grounds clean and tidy, reusing both plastic and glass containers in the home economics department, installing bird feeders to support local wildlife and working in collaboration with a local textile company to obtain waste material donations to recycle and repurpose to create something new.

Marr College secured second place in the competition for their ongoing efforts in promoting environmental awareness by planting fruit trees to provide a sustainable food source, participating in the Litter Lotto scheme, and reducing emissions through the use of the Carbon Calculator to track the school's environmental impact.

Each team presented the tasks they had undertaken to a panel of judges consisting of Depute Provost, Mary Kilpatrick; George Tarvit, Director of the Sustainable Scotland Network; Alan McGonigle of Energy Agency; Scott Mulholland, South Ayrshire Council's Acting Director of Education; and guest panel member, Lord Lieutenant, Iona McDonald.

Depute Provost Mary Kilpatrick said: "The School Footprint Challenge is a fantastic initiative for young people to think about sustainability and how taking small steps to reducing our ecological footprint can make a big difference. The young people who have taken part in the challenge this year should be very proud - each presentation displayed innovation, creativity, and dedication to understand the world that we live in and how to protect it."