Academies across the North of England are going to be getting a special visitor as part of a sustainability tour.

Outwood Grange Academies Trust, which sponsors over 30 academies, is taking a special guest out on tour in its efforts to raise awareness of sustainability across the Outwood Family.

The Outwood penguin is the result of the first ever Outwood Sustainability Summit which was held last academic year, following a student writing to Outwood CEO, Martyn Oliver, to express her interest in pushing the prominent issue of sustainability with him and the wider Trust.

At the subsequent Outwood Sustainability Summit, Lily Ford, the student whose letter led to the summit, gave a speech outlining ways in which the Trust could do more to help promote the issue. 

It is for this reason that the penguin’s first visit is to Outwood Academy Shafton, where Lily is now a year 7 student. 

Speaking about the visit and wider issue, Lily said: “I am delighted that my letter to Mr Oliver has led to this wonderful initiative which will really help raise awareness about sustainability and how important it is that we all do our bit to ensure we help the environment.

“I am very passionate about this issue, and I am inspired by the acts of other young people who are working hard for the environment. I was inspired by discussions at the Outwood Sustainability Summit last year, and was hopeful that it would lead to action.

"Miss Ogden, an inspirational Outwood teacher, first made me aware of the damage done to our oceans every year and the consequences this pollution will have for all of us in the future; this left me determined to be part of the change!

“The Outwood penguin and it’s tour across the Outwood Family is just another example of my hope not being false and that as a Trust, Outwood is really doing what it can to be as sustainable as possible.”

The Outwood penguin, which is yet to be named, is made of 100% recyclable materials and the logo for the initiative was designed entirely by Lily.

Julie Slater, Chief Executive Secondary at Outwood, said:

“At Outwood, we believe in putting students first and this is another example of us putting this belief into practice. 

“When Lily first wrote to our CEO, she was in year 6 at Outwood Primary Academy Littleworth Grange and she had a vision and a desire to help everyone and I count myself fortunate that I was able to listen to her speak at the Outwood Sustainability Summit. 

“She is an inspiration.

“We have worked together over the last few months and this is just one of the initiatives we are looking to launch over the academic year to try and do our bit to help raise awareness of this incredibly significant issue which affects all of us. We need to get young people talking about sustainability; it is important to their futures and it is important that they play their part in protecting the world we live in.”

Earlier this year, the Outwood Family announced that it was working with it’s uniform supplier to help reduce waste. As part of this, each Trutex blazer that Outwood secondary students have saves around 36 plastic bottles from ending up in a landfill site.

From January 2019 to October that year, the Trust said that more than half a million plastic bottles had been saved from landfill thanks to its uniform being made from recycled bottles by its uniform supplier, Trutex.

The Trust also provides every child who joins the school with a free set of uniform, including their blazer.