Bamboo, more than food for pandas
The SCA's 2012 Primary Schools Competition, in co-operation with the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, reached its conclusion on Saturday 23 June at Edinburgh Zoo. Around 25 children, parents and teachers, from Battlefield School and Fernhill School in Glasgow and St Margaret's School for Girls in Aberdeen, joined us to view the entries, receive their prizes and - of course - to meet Tian Tian and Yang Guang.
The winners, parents and teachers with SCA members after the prizegiving
The aim of the competition was to encourage children to learn more about this ubiquitous plant and to look at it in relation to the Chinese style of painting, as well as to animal conservation.
We were delighted to receive many excellent entries from three schools. The standard was very high, and clearly everyone involved had a lot of fun creating a variety of fascinating artwork – may we offer our heartiest congratulations to all ! We hope to add illustrations of some entries to this page shortly.
We also greatly appreciate the kind support of Edinburgh Zoo in hosting the prize-giving event and allowing everyone a special opportunity to meet Scotland's Very Important Pandas. We were delighted that Alison McLean, the pandas' keeper, was able to join us to present the prizes and give everyone an insight into her unique job. Thanks, too, to the members of the SCA Edinburgh branch who did the judging and worked behind the scenes to make everything go smoothly.
The prizewinners are as follows :
| Prize category | Winner |
| The Tom Murray Memorial Prize | Battlefield Primary School, Glasgow |
| 2nd school prize | St. Margaret's School for Girls, Aberdeen |
| 3rd school prize | Fernhill School, Glasgow |
| P6-7 |
1st - Eilidh Campbell, St. Margaret's |
| P4-5 |
Ist - Eleanor Grant, Battlefield |
| P1-3 |
1si - Charlotte Bell, Battlefield |
| Judge's commendations |
P1-3, Niamh Wilson, Battlefield |
| Judge's discretionary prize | Yasha Shuvalov, Battlefield for a remarkably professional DVD presentation about bamboo |
| Judge's discretionary prize | Erin McQuillan, Megan McLees, Alexander Roberts, Anna McCaig and Orla Doonin, Fernhill, for a very entertaining and original DVD |
| Judge's discretionary prize | Euan Dunbar, Fernhill for excellent written work |
| Judge's special recognition presentation | Ms Catriona Brown, a teacher at Battlefield, for encouraging and supporting entries in several SCA competitions over the years |
We all now look forward to the next SCA Primary Schools Competition, scheduled for 2014.
Background to the competition
The SCA competition was originally run by the Tom Murray Memorial Trust (no longer in existence). Tom Murray was a founding member of the SCA, after distinguished service with the International Brigade in Spain and was a respected Edinburgh city councillor. He was a man of courage and principle, and had both a great interest both in China and in education, so this competition is dedicated to his memory.
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