Students at Greenwood Academy have won an environmental journalism programme thanks to two amazing video reports.

Reuben Lawrence won the Keep Scotland Beautiful’s Young Reporters for the Environment Video Campaign for 11-14 year olds with Irvine Litter Clean Up Video.

And Lola Marshall won the Video campaign for 15-18 year olds with Stop Plastic Pollution.

Both videos were made in collaboration with Irvine Clean Up Crew.

Young Reporters for the Environment is an environmental journalism programme that gives young people the opportunity to share their thoughts on environmental issues they feel strongly about through writing, photography and videos.

It is also an international competition and a network of nearly 500,000 young people worldwide actively speaking up for and protecting the environment.

Catriona Rae, education and learning officer at Keep Scotland Beautiful, said: “We are delighted to see so many entries to this year's competition looking at the issue of source to sea litter and marine pollution.

“It has never been more important for us to address Scotland's litter emergency, and listening to young people is a vital part of taking action to keep Scotland beautiful.

“Congratulations to all our winners and to everyone who participated and submitted such interesting, informative and thought-provoking entries.”

Jennifer Pless, chair of Irvine Clean Up Crew, said: "We, at Irvine Clean Up Crew, were absolutely delighted with both Lola's and Reuben's videos.

"They both managed to capture the seriousness of the litter problem in brilliantly creative ways while also acting as a platform for showing people where they could come and volunteer if they wanted to take more action.

"We loved Lola's style so much that she is going to come and help us with a plastic free social media campaign over the summer.

"We are very proud of both Lola and Reuben and are excited to hear about the further opportunities their eco-reporting will provide for them."

Eva Nachtergaele, Reuben's mum, said: "We live in Irvine and love the beaches, rivers and green spaces here.

"More and more we see these places drowning under a flood of plastic waste and discarded litter so we want to do all we can to turn the tide and make them stunning again."

Reuben, Lola and the other winners will now progress to the international competition which will take place in late June.

Submissions are now open for next year’s competition, which focuses on themes of biodiversity loss, climate action and litter/pollution. Entry deadline is May 1, 2024.