Wolves Foundation sets up a schools Dragons' Den on recycling

A group of students from St Edmund’s Catholic Academy have earned national recognition for an innovative project focused on recycling as part of the Premier League Inspires challenge with Wolves Foundation.

‘What an ‘Edder’ – befitting of the school’s name - is the title of the initiative from the year 10 students, delivered as their response to the challenge of how to ‘Protect the Planet’, the question put to young people on the PL Inspires programme from different clubs across the country.

Five impressive ideas then emerged from celebration events staged among participating clubs, with the Foundation’s entry via St Edmund’s – aimed at recycling plastic bottles and cups from a matchday to make training tops for players and fans – was voted as the overall favourite by their peers and members of the Premier League Charitable Fund Protect the Planet Youth Panel.

“Working with the Wolves Foundation on the Premier League Inspires Programme offered such fantastic opportunities for growth and development of our students,” said Russell Banks, inclusion manager at St Edmund’s.

“Winning the overall project has been an amazing validation of all the hard work and dedication our students put into the project.”

The process started with an event at Molineux where participants from different schools on Wolves Foundation’s PL Inspires programme put forward their ideas to improve sustainability in front of a Dragon’s Den style panel of staff.

Kurran Kullar, senior schools officer (secondary), with the Foundation, works closely on the PL Inspires project, which uses the power of football to inspire young people aged between 11 and 18 to develop the personal skills and positive attitudes needed to succeed in life.

“When setting different schools the challenge of coming up with a really impactful project about sustainability and the environment, we received some really strong and creative responses,” said Kullar.

“To see the group from St Edmund’s not only go forward from our event but then be named as the most impactful from so many fantastic projects was fantastic, and a real credit to all of the young people involved.”

As a result of producing the most impactful project idea for the 2022/23 season, the students from St Edmund’s were then engaged by the Premier League to feature in a video to launch the challenge for the 2023/24 campaign, a real honour.

Premier League head of sustainability, Will Hutton, added: “By taking on this social action project with Wolves Foundation, the young people from St Edmund's Catholic Academy have developed an idea that could make a real difference to the world around them.”