Sir David dines with Denny girls

The award winning team – sisters Eve and Kayla Bennie and Paton Airlie – joined Sir David and other guests at the charity dinner in the National Museum of Scotland which also featured performances from violinist Nicola Benedetti and pop group Hue and Cry.

The Denny girls won the chance to dine with Sir David after beating over 180 entries to the Zero Waste Scotland/Hunter Foundation environmental competition with their short film Do It Days and its recommendations and suggestions to schools across Scotland designed to reduce carbon emissions.

The film uses some eye catching visuals to convince schools to introduce Meatless Monday, Turn Off Tuesday, Walking Wednesday, No Throw Away Thursday and Fruity Friday.

The youngsters and Denny High rector Jamie Vaughn-Sharp looked on proudly from their table as Sir David watched their film during the dinner.

Sir Tom Hunter said: “We have seen Scotland’s young people react to this climate challenge with deep knowledge and understanding of what needs to be done. What strikes me is the consistency with which they see schools as potential beacons of hope, citing everything from meat free Mondays, banning plastics to water refills, garden and tree planting, as well as clean energy use.

“Given the Government’s commitment to climate change, schools may well be precisely the place to continue this drive harnessing the passion and knowledge of the young people who can and will lead this change.

“To be honest all the schools and pupils who participated were winners, but these three remarkable entries from Denny High School, George Heriot’s School and Perth Grammar School shone out.

“The incredible participation in this competition shows the generation we have let down by our actions won’t let their actions compound our negligence, quite the reverse.”

Iain Gulland, chief executive of Zero Waste Scotland, added: “The high standard of entries show just how important the environment is to Scotland’s school pupils.”