PUPILS at Tenby CiW Primary School brought their Footprints Across the Planet project to an energetic conclusion at their Power the Party event at Tenby Leisure Centre.

It was a brilliant finish to an inspiring collaboration between Egni Co-op, Pembrokeshire County Council, Tenby Leisure Centre and Tenby Primary School led by Education Programme Lead, Jennifer James.

The Footprints across the Planet project set out to ask how communities can be more sustainable, use less energy and reduce their carbon footprint.

Throughout the year pupils took part in a variety of face to face and online ‘We are Energy Warriors’ workshops. From a battery coin experiment with Swansea University, a workshop on how electricity works with Cardiff University, energy and power with Pembrokeshire Coastal Forum to inspirational talks from explorers in the Arctic and Antarctic.

They also met Energy Champions at Tenby Leisure Centre to find out more about how they used energy and share their learning.

Tenby Leisure Centre has a 70kW of solar PV system and a 102 kWh storage battery. This project provided an opportunity for real life problem solving, exploring how much energy the centre used - and how it could use the solar energy and the energy saved in the battery wisely. Their main investigation was the pool, as they found out that this was the biggest energy guzzler onsite and the best way to save energy was to design a better cover!

Jen explains: “The ambitious and ethical pupils shared their learning eloquently with the guests at the party including STEM insights and tips for energy reduction. The pupils yesterday told me that they regularly patrol the corridors looking for equipment that has been left on and reward staff (and classes) on a points-based system! We are pleased to see on Energy Sparks (the platform that we use to monitor energy use) that their energy use has gone down by 9 per cent this year. Hopefully, their expertise will lead to more energy reduction at the leisure centre.”

At the Power the Party event on July 7, pupils from Year 5 welcomed visitors from school, the leisure centre, the county council and their families and shared their journeys as Energy Warriors, detectives and change-makers. They ran stalls that creatively demonstrated and explored energy waste, generation and storage; made batteries; demonstrated behaviour change; and much more.

The Pedal Powered Disco led by Ynni Da, generated music all morning with a battery level scoreboard that showed the effort required to generate the necessary energy. Solar-powered bugs and a visit to the onsite battery with a talk led by Michael Switzer, Egni Operations Manager, offered more real-world opportunities to understand how we are all part of the energy system.

Gary Nicholas, PCC Leisure Services Manager thanked everyone who had taken part:

“Thanks to all involved – especially to you Rhys, and to Jen. The children were outstanding and it was really evident that they had learnt a lot and perhaps more importantly, had thoroughly enjoyed the process which is quite an achievement.”