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TEFORS COMPETITION DAY

On Wednesday April 28 the Tyre Education for Schools (TEFORS) programme held an awards ceremony at St Columba’s Church in Northumberland Square, North Shields.

This event was the culmination of several months of hard work for David Bavaird, the man behind (TEFORS). He launched the programme in October 2009, its aim being to educate primary school pupils on the importance of tyre safety and tyre recycling.

“TEFORS is a great opportunity for pupils to take part in a major educational project,” David, Director of Scrap Tyre Exchange, explains. “It also gives businesses a chance to give something back to their community through sponsoring a school.”

Benefits to the schools include a class lesson from David, introducing the pupils to TEFORS.  Topic areas covered include tyres and the environment; tyre manufacturing, their use and safety. An added appeal is that the lesson uses tyres to teach pupils following the National Curriculum, covering Science, Maths, English, Geography and Citizenship.

David explains, “This is a great opportunity for the pupils to put into practise what they’ve learnt from participating in TEFORS. It also gives them the chance to use their imagination and have some fun!”

Local primary schools had been set the challenge of giving a presentation to address the question: What can you do with scrap tyres?

This was the first event of its kind in North Shields and the guests included representatives from North Tyneside Council; North Shield’s Chamber of Trade; Business Link; One North-East, local politicians and businesses.
 
In opening, Julia Cantwell of the North Tyneside Education Business Partnership explained, “One day last year David Bavaird from TEFORS came to see me and said, ‘I’ve got this idea for a schools project. It’s about tyre safety and recycling tyres.’

“Now, on the face of it, this isn’t the most exciting project in the world and I hope my look didn’t give away the fact that’s what I was thinking!

“David spoke with such passion however that he soon won me over. In fact, I would like to say that all this has been inspired by David.  He has been the driving force behind this unique project, TEFORS, informing pupils about all aspects of how a tyre is made, tyre safety, tyre recycling and what a tyre can do and then setting the children their challenge.”

The schools taking part were: Collingwood, King Edwards, Priory, Riverside, Spring Gardens, St Cuthbert’s, St Joseph’s, Waterville and Christchurch.

The standard of entries was so high the judges needed extra time to come to their decision and they had high praise for all the entries. The judges were especially impressed by the pupils’ very effective use of technology in giving their presentations and for some original ‘out of the box’ thinking.

The winners were:

Best Presentation: Collingwood Primary School



The children’s presentation profiled how an Eco friendly school could be built, using re-cycled tyre materials and their presentation included a rap song involving the whole class.

Best Display: Spring Gardens Primary School



The judges were especially impressed by the pupils’ work in researching facts and figures to do with the tyre industry and in explaining why tyres should be recycled.

Overall Concept: St Josepth’s Primary School



The pupils’ highly original idea of a Football Money Box made of a tyre impressed the judges, who thought it had real commercial potential.

Barbara Stevens, Deputy Chair of North Tyneside Council, presented the awards and praised TEFORS for forging links between the business community and education.

David Bavaird then addressed the assembled, thanking Julia Cantwell, the judges and Barbara Stevens. And, most importantly, David thanked the pupils, for having taken part and producing such fine work.

David also wished to give a special mention to the teachers who took part in TEFORS. He said, “Before starting this programme my last contact with teachers was 30 years ago and I guess like a lot of other people I thought they had a pretty cushy number, working short hours and with long holidays and all of that.

“How wrong I was! I saw first hand just how hard teachers work. I was getting e-mails from them late at night, over the weekends and on one occasion at four in the morning!”

“These are exciting times for TEFORS. The programme is being rolled out across the UK later this year and we already have over 50 schools signed up and have received support from across a range of businesses including all sectors of the tyre industry..”
 

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