Children at St. Hild’s Primary School in Durham has been announced at the winners of the Build the Change challenge, with 10,000 LEGO bricks on the way to the school.
Last year, filmmaker Reggie Yates and the LEGO Group teamed up to ask schoolchildren to make a short film addressing an issue in their community that they care about and their creative solutions. It is part of Build the Change, an initiative by the LEGO Group to offer learning through play-based resources that connect children to sustainability and get them thinking about the future.
The winning entry came from St. Hild’s Primary School in Durham. It is titled ‘Bringing More Nature to the Community’ and tells the story of a teddy bear who, feeling sad about having a lack of outdoor space to explore, goes to a forest school where they discover feelings of calmness, peacefulness and happiness.
Other entries covered recycling and reusing of waste products, a community coming together to clean their beach, and free sports lessons for children living in poverty. More than 1,500 schools registered for the learning resources.
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Runner-up schools will also get 3,000 LEGO bricks each – Arinagour Primary School on the Isle of Coll and Castle Court School in Wimbourne, Dorset.
‘It has been brilliant to take part in the LEGO Group’s Build the Change campaign,’ says Reggie Yates. ‘ I’m so impressed with all the films that were submitted – it’s been a great way to get children engaged with what is happening in the world around them, and have them come up with a creative solution to issues that matter to them. The standard of filmmaking on show was really high, with so much thought going into the videos that the schoolchildren made.’
‘We’re absolutely thrilled with the response we’ve had to this year’s competition,’ adds David Pallash from the LEGO Global Social Impact Programs and Partnerships department. ‘Our mission at the LEGO Group is to inspire and develop the builders of tomorrow and that’s exactly what the Build the Change programme is all about.’