The winners of a bee-themed art competition for schools have been announced – and students who took part are buzzing to find out if they were going to fly off with a prize.
The competition from the Pollinator Project celebrates a different group of pollinating insects each year – with this year’s focus being solitary bees.
Students flexed their creative muscles to create their best, and most creative, versions of the common insect.
Sharon Hickman, from the Pollinator Project, said: “It was really tough and we had to whittle down the entries and check with the best experts on the island.
“The answer was unanimous in the end and we picked the bee created by Isla from St Anne’s school in Alderney”.
The competition, which is now in its 8th year, has had more than 10,000 entries since it started.
To celebrate the milestone, organisers launched a new prize to celebrate the most realistic version of a bee.
Students Arthur, Juno and Samuel picked up third, second and first place respectively.
Samuel, who has won in the past, is turning heads, with Ms Hickman adding, “there is a budding artist there at Castel School”.
Other winners include Daisy, who won the pre-schools prize, and Lewis with the SEN prize.
Linda Boucher-Harris, from sponsor Rothschild, said: “Connecting children with nature like this is so important.
“It’s lovely that in this digital age we can support a programme that is such fun and relies on practical and creative skills”.
Sophie won the Wells Prize, which is named after the late Barry Wells, who co-founded the competition in 2017.
Mr Wells’ wife, Jayne Wells, said: “As a family we love continuing this connection with the Pollinator Project.
“It’s amazing to see all the entries hanging in the Guille-Allès library and we know that Barry […] would have been delighted.”
She said the art competition was “very dear to his heart, for him it combined art, science and education”.
