Aoife Forbes of Bonaly Primary in Edinburgh is the first winner of the Green Pencil Award, a creative writing competition launched in August by Edinburgh City Council.

The competition forms a major part of the Festival of Libraries, which culminated in the awards evening at the Central Reference Library earlier this month. More than 900 entries were received from P4-7 children in the form of a piece of creative writing on a green or environmental theme.

Overall winner, Aoife, 11, (right), wrote a haunting piece, “Antarctic Waste”, on the devastating effects of global warming. She said: “I think this competition was a great chance for young people to write about important environmental issues.”