Overall winners Jessica Jones, Sophie Carter, Grace Johnson and Yasmin Paton who came up with the idea of a fashion swap-shop.
| Sixth-formers at Claires Court School have swept the board in the Maidenhead Rotary Club Young Environmentalist Competition. The students entered the group senior category in the local round of the competition, which is being run nationwide by Rotary to encourage young people to engage with environmental issues. The teams had to research and undertake an environmental sustainability project on the theme of climate change or carbon reduction that raised awareness of a particular problem and inspired action to respond to it. The winning entry was ‘The Effects of Fashion on Our Climate’ submitted by Jessica Jones, Sophie Carter, Grace Johnson and Yasmin Paton, who came up with the idea of a swap-shop to reuse unwanted clothes. They shared the first prize of £100 and each student was given a certificate. Their entry now goes forward into the district round of the competition. | The two runner-up entries were a carbon footprint rating sticker by Jess Holmes and Erin Kenton, and a climate change reminder app from Luke Lyons and Aaron Mussel. Both pairs shared prizes of £50 and received certificates. Club president Martin Trepte, environmental lead Gurdial Singh and schools liaison lead Malcolm Falconer presented the prizes to the winners and runners-up in a sixth-form assembly. Martin told the students: “It’s so important young people engage with these issues as you are inheriting the world from the last generation and, to be honest, we haven’t done a very good job of looking after it for you. “So it’s wonderful that Claires Court pupils have risen to the challenge, embraced the issues and produced such fantastic entries in the competition.” Maidenhead Rotary Club would like to thank Thames Water for providing the cash prizes for the winners and runners-up. |
 Jess Holmes and Erin Kenton devised a carbon footprint rating sticker. |  Luke Lyons and Aaron Mussel developed a climate change app. |