Eden Challenge Winners Announced

After three months of hard work by schools all across Bahrain, the four age group category winners of Eden Challenge 2009, the schools competition established by Riffa Views Signature Estates to inspire the Kingdom’s school students to consider the importance of the environment, have been selected.

Project entries, required to highlight the various ways that innovative techniques for the conservation and management of water in the twenty-first century interact with and support everyday surroundings, closed last week – giving the judging panel of four, led by Riffa Views’ Garden & Landscapes Ambassador, Chris Beardshaw, a first look at the wide range of high quality, imaginative and well thought out projects across the four age group categories.

Richard Browning, CEO of Riffa Views, on hand to view the entries and the judging process, was delighted by the outcome of the competition, commenting “The number of schools that took part this year and the increased effort shown by the quality of the entries demonstrates that the environmental challenge is one that the students are keen to take on. It proves that investment by corporate bodies in our children will provide sustainable results and so protect their future. We look forward to exhibiting their creative solutions to the Eden challenge at the Riffa Views Bahrain International Garden Show.”

Beardshaw, along with fellow judges – Shaikha Muneera bint Ahmed Al-Khalifa, Matthew Rushton and Dr Zuhair Al Dallal, had the difficult but enjoyable task of reviewing the 60 entries from 44 schools that had been delivered to the Riffa Views International School, some by the project teams’ teachers, others by the students themselves decked out in the distinctive ‘Eden Challenge’ T Shirts.

Each of the four age group categories – Category A: 6-9 years, Category B: 10-12-years, Category C: 13-15-years and Category D: 16 to 18 years – required entries to be focused on different aspects of the water based theme and were judged on set criteria covering overall design / presentation, research, content, construction and ‘environmental friendliness’. The judges, with the experience of judging Eden Challenge 2008 already behind them, were unanimous in the view that the overall standard of the competition entries was much higher this year – it was quite clear to all of them that each of the schools had put considerable effort and depth into the development and design of their projects, documenting and reporting everything in great detail for them to follow.

Chris Beardshaw summed up the judges’ feelings – “The detail that we were expecting for 2009 was far greater than 2008; we were unsure quite how the school’s would respond, however we were thrilled and delighted at the level of imagination and detail provided, especially in the younger categories. This response is a clear indication of the enthusiasm and commitment of both schools and pupils to explore and express their understanding of the complex environment issues in water as a resource and in the conservation of Bahrain”.

Richard Browning was delighted with the way the competition had built on the successes of Eden Challenge 2008 and the high standard of this year’s entries. He congratulated all the schools who had entered, commenting that in many ways they were all winners – as one of the judges, Matthew Rushton, put it, “The most positive and encouraging thing for me was the enjoyment you could see on the kids faces from the photographs that were submitted with their entries showing them hard at work, which is one of the main reasons for holding the Eden Challenge.”

The challenge for the expert judging panel was to review the 60 entries – 19 Category A, 17 Category B, 15 Category C and 9 Category D – and to decide on a winning school and ‘two highly commended’ schools for each category; due to the quality of the project submissions, this was not an easy process and took a great deal of discussion between the judges before they finally decided on the winning schools as follows:

Category A Winner Amena Bint Wahab Primary Girls School Highly Commended Palms Primary School Arabian Gulf Pearl School

Category B Winner Um Al Qoora Primary Intermediate Girls School Highly Commended Amena Bint Wahab Primary Girls School Al Quds Primary Girls School

Category C Winner Al Qayrawan Intermediate Girls School Highly Commended Arabian Gulf Pearl School Um Al Qoora Primary Intermediate Girls School

Category D Winner Khawla Secondary Girls School Highly Commended Hoora Commercial Secondary Girls School The Indian School – Isa Town Shaikh Isa bin Ali Al-Khalifa Secondary Boys’ School

Three schools are worthy of special mention – the Amena Bint Wahab Primary Girls School and the Um Al Qoora Primary Intermediate Girls School, who both ‘fielded’ a category winner and a ‘highly commended’ project – the Um Al Qoora School going one step better than their ‘highly commended’ result last year; and, in some ways perhaps the unluckiest school, the Arabian Gulf Pearl School who provided two ‘highly commended’ project entries but couldn’t quite make it into any of the top spots this year to follow on from their category win in Eden Challenge 2008.

The four category winners will receive cash awards of BD1,000 each to spend on enhancing their environmental education resources and will have their entries built up and displayed on the Eden Challenge stand at RVBIGS – Chris Beardshaw spent some ‘post judging’ time discussing the practical aspects of this display building process with the Riffa Views Eden Challenge team before flying back to the UK. Each of the schools who entered will receive a commemorative Eden Challenge plaque and have a tree planted in their name in one of Bahrain’s public parks.

The Overall Eden Challenge Winner, who will receive the overall Eden Challenge trophy and a further cash award of BD3,000, will then be selected during RVBIGS from the four category winners – from the list above, one thing is for sure, the title of Overall Eden Challenge Winner will remain in female hands, with one of this year’s winning girls schools looking forward to taking over from last year’s overall winners, The Umm Salama Intermediate Girls School.

Beardshaw arrives for Eden Challenge judging

Chris Beardshaw, Ambassador – Gardens & Landscapes, Riffa Views Signature Estates, arrived in Bahrain last night, raring to go in the judging of the Riffa Views 2009 Eden Challenge entries. He will head up a four person judging panel – also including Shaikha Muneera bint Ahmed Al-Khalifa, Matthew Rushton and Dr Zuhair Al Dallal – that will review all the completed projects that were passed across to Riffa Views at the Riffa Views International School on Monday, the closing date for entries.

Beardshaw is involved in and passionate about many varied and interesting things through his gardening and landscaping expertise – TV programs, books, lecture series, garden shows, landscaping designs, but he reserves a special passion for interaction with school-children on all matters garden, landscape and the environs that we all share. He was instrumental with Riffa Views in establishing Eden Challenge 2008, the first time that the environmental focused competition for Bahrain schools had been organized, and is a very active participant and supporter of this second edition.

Judging commences today as the judges consider all the entries and give each of them marks across five key elements – brief and purpose, overall impression, overall design, construction and impression and horticultural content. Going into the competition room at the Exhibition Centre was a tremendous experience last year said Beardshaw, “it was amazing to see the sheer spread of creativity, imagination and effort that was present in that room, it was a real eye-opener how committed the school-children were and I am expecting it to be the same, if not better this time around.”

By the end of the day, the four judges will have decided on the winning schools in the four age group categories – last year the judging was so tight in two of the categories that joint winners were announced, “I fully expect that the quality of the projects this year will give the judging panel as difficult a time as they had last year, and would not be surprised if they are once again unable to ‘split’ schools in one or more of the age groups”, commented Richard Browning, the CEO of Riffa Views.

The four winning school project teams will receive a monetary award for their schools as well as the opportunity to be chosen as the Overall 2009 Riffa Views Eden Challenge winner. Beardshaw will spend time post judging with Riffa Views organizers to look at the way that the four winning entries can be displayed to best effect on the Riffa Views Eden Challenge stand at The Bahrain International Garden Show 2009 (“RVBIGS 2009”), with the overall winner selected from the four age group winners during the Show.

Professional Coaches Boost Bahrain Netball

Bahrain Netball teams concluded their 5-day training camp with top Talent and Performance coaches today in preparation for the upcoming Riffa Views Inter-Gulf Netball Championships to be held at the Bahrain Rugby Club on the 13th and 14th March.

Gilly Salter and Sue Wainwright, both experienced England Netball coaches travelled to Bahrain to undertake 5 intensive training sessions with the 4 teams selected to represent Bahrain at the annual tournament.

Over 40 players participated in the coaching sessions which concentrated on ball skills, agility, tactics and game-play. The Bahrain A team placed 5th at last year’s championships but anticipate improving on that position at this year’s event following 6 months of intensive training as a core unit. Team captain Mel Goosen said: “The last five days have been really hard work but worth every second. Gilly and Sue give so much to our players, we’ve really enjoyed it and have a learned a lot in a short time. They have given us the best chance of getting into the finals.”

The Bahrain Netball League will enter 5 teams into the upcoming Riffa Views Inter-Gulf Netball Championships, which is expected to attract up to 22 ladies teams and 5 men’s teams from the Gulf region for the two-day competition.

Mrs Salter and Mrs Wainwright, who both coach the award-winning Hucclecote Netball Club in Gloucestershire said: “We were delighted to be invited back to coach the Bahrain netball squads. Since our last visit, all players have progressed hugely and the strength and depth within Bahrain is even stronger now than it was previously and looks very promising for the tournament. As always, everyone was highly motivated, enthusiastic and keen to learn all they could. We now look forward to the squads consolidating what they have learned and look forward to coming back to coach them in March just prior to the tournament”

For more information about the Riffa Views Inter-Gulf Netball Championships, please contact Michaela Milne on 3660 0308 or see the website: intergulfnetball.com.

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