Local children Stop! Look! Listen! and Notice Nature

Greener Henley celebrated the work of local school children this week, in a 5 day exhibition of work submitted for their annual Environmental Science Challenge. Schools and students were invited to consider the 2026 theme: Stop! Look! Listen! Noticing Nature. The theme was designed to prompt everyone to notice the diversity of wildlife that surrounds us and participants were encouraged to be as creative as they liked in response to the theme.

Also on display, along side the work submitted for the challenge, were a selection of photographs from the group’s photography competition as well as early submissions of poems already submitted for the Big Green Week’s poetry competition (the deadline for which is 30 May). Entrants came from almost 20 schools, with ages ranging from 3 years old up to 18.

The exhibition was held in The Old Fire Station Gallery (previously having been in The River and Rowing Museum) – and benefitted from a central location that gained a pleasing amount of footfall from visitors – a mix of locals and tourists who were enjoying Henley and the Henley trail. Diana Barnett, from Greener Henley, said “We have to thank the Thamesfield Youth Trust for sponsoring this event. Without the money we got from them, we wouldn’t have been able to use this venue and it’s been so wonderful to have visitors popping in. There have been people from Henley but also lots of visitors from out of town who have been very complimentary about the work on show here. It’s been a great experience.”

Cllr. Gill Dodds, who is a trustee for Thamesfield Youth Trust explained, “We were delighted to sponsor the event. This is exactly what our remit covers and the standard of work just gets better and better each year – seeing it all exhibited here is really wonderful.”

The trophy for the most involved school this year went to Valley Road School who had many examples of work on display from a variety of year groups. Year 2 teacher and co-leader of the school’s Team Green, Nicola Gordon, said: “We are surprised but really delighted to win. We’ve worked really hard as a school and it’s lovely to see this celebration of children’s work – it really sparked a huge excitement at our school and it’s been lovely to share the work with the public too.”

Diana Barnett explained that Valley Road had been chosen as over all winners because of the high levels of involvement and engagement across the whole school. Nicola spoke of how the whole school had taken part in an Earth Day celebration with a day of practical, nature-based activities. They had also been enjoying Walk to School Week where the children were also encouraged to notice nature whilst they were walking. There had also been nature themed topics in class to inspire the children, with Year 2 having taken part in a wide range of activities including litter sweeps, delivering anti-litter posters to the town hall and local businesses during a walk of the area, a visit from British owls as well as studying seeds, pollination and also writing poems based on Michael Rosen’s The Rhythm of Life – which they sent to the poet.

Kate Oldridge of Greener Henley explained that the aim was to engage children and get them to really notice nature. “When you have a connection to nature, it builds a bond. We aim to show how individuals can make a difference, and by getting children involved, we hope they will be engaged for the future, but not only that, we are hoping they will also engage other members of their family and community. We need people to realise that the affect that one person can have can be great – lots of individuals pulling in the same direction grows a network and can then collectively make a big difference.”

Henley’s new mayor, Cllr. Ian Reissmann, attended the secondary schools viewing and awards afternoon and said: “Nature is all around us and there are always lots of discussions going on, and stories in the news. Greener Henley do a great job at raising awareness and inspiring people and seeing the work here is great. It’s so important to have younger people engaged and showing the way.”

Photography entrant, Lara Yogurtcular, from Emmer Green Primary School, popped in to the exhibition to see her and her sister’s work on display amongst the other photos. “I loved taking my photos and I was out much longer than I thought I would be as there was so much to take pictures of – which also made it hard to choose which one to enter! It’s inspired me to go out again as it was so much fun noticing nature.”

Photography Winners:

Primary School Winner:

Jack Davies, Emmer Green – A bucket of beginnings

Primary Runners up:

Qingting Wang, Caversham Primary – White flower party in blue

Frank O’Brien, Trinity School – A beautiful robin

Elio Barry, Trinity School – Snakes head fritillary

Secondary School Winner:

Thomas James Matthews, The Piggott School – Little frog hiding away

Secondary Runners Up:

Jessica Kettell, Henley College Pathways – Snowdrops

Zuzanna Maciuk, Queen Anne’s School – How we hold together