Deck the halls

Fourteen schools have signed up for the annual Christmas Tree Decorating Competition at the National Botanic Garden of Wales.

This year’s festive contest is on Thursday 3rd December and the theme is “Magical Christmas Woodland”.

Pupils will be up against the clock to decorate their Christmas tree using reused and recycled materials to create imaginative and colourful decorations based on this year’s theme.

The aims of the event are to:

• Promote sustainability and the re-use and recycling of materials
• Enable pupils to get their creative juices flowing
• Have fun

There are cash prizes and a chance to win expert supply cover plus other goodies – donated by sponsors: Base Wales, Cled Moses, Gas Services Wales and Dwr Cymru.

This year, Cwm Environmental have kindly offered to sponsor all the trees which will be supplied by Cymru Christmas Trees.

This year’s contest has attracted entries from as far afield as Cardiff and Ceredigion, as well as Carmarthen, Llanelli and Swansea.

The Garden’s Education Development Officer Nancy Hardy said: “We are glad to be hosting this event again. It is a great opportunity to encourage schools to think about Education for Sustainable Development and Global Citizenship at this special time of year and we hope that the theme will encourage schools to think about using woodlands around their school and here at the Garden to support their learning. We also get a lovely Christmas display for visitors to enjoy throughout Decemeber. ”

She added: “We would like to thank all our sponsors for their support once again in making this event possible.”

The Christmas trees will be on show in the Great Glasshouse until the new year.

The full list of schools taking part is: Ysgol Gynradd Ffairfach, Ysgol Y Felin, Pontarddulais Comprehensive School, Ysgol Gynradd Penygroes, Ysgol Llys Hywel, Dyffryn Aman, Cwmtawe Community School, Cefn Hengoed Community School, Queen Elizabeth High School, Rhydygors, Willowbrook Primary School, Ysgol Bro Myrddin and Ysgol Gynradd Aberporth