When The Funky Phoenixes first took on the KEY+ Challenge, they weren’t just signing up for another project, they were stepping into something bigger – a chance to prove that a small group of determined young people can spark real change.
The Funky Phoenixes: Stage 2
Their journey began with a simple but powerful idea: recycling. For their Stage 2, they’d set their sights on launching a brand-new recycling scheme in their school. They bought recycling bins, created a house prize system to motivate students, and set out to change everyday habits. But turning a good idea into reality was never simple. They had to negotiate with senior school staff, find the right equipment, work with site staff, and get the whole school on board.
At first, it was slow. Changing behaviour takes work. But once they introduced a prize for the house collecting the most recycling, something shifted. Students started joining in and the project was no longer just theirs – it belonged to the community.
And when the job of collecting recycling became too much for just the three of them, they didn’t give up. They teamed up with the school’s climate change group, showing that collaboration really can make a difference.
The Funky Phoenixes: Stage Three
Then, Stage 3 took their project to a whole new level. Instead of focusing just on their school, they aimed to inspire the next generation through an eco-friendly competition in local primary schools.
This time, their work meant lesson planning, contacting schools, setting up judging panels, organising prizes, and finding creative ways to make being eco-friendly exciting for younger pupils.
The group said: “We’ve always been passionate about climate change, and we’ve done climate change projects ever since we started working with The Key. […] We tried working with secondary schools, it was quite difficult, and we feel like if we work with primary schools, we’ll have a double impact of raising awareness of climate change and having an impact on the kid’s lives, maybe getting them into activism and politics, and getting them into climate action.”
“Studies show that if you get young children engaged with politics quite early in primary school then it can transpire to when they’re a teenager. Also, like sometimes kids in secondary school just don’t want to do much but kids at primary school can be a lot more willing to engage.”
Edda also said: “I think sometimes it can feel like being eco-friendly is kind of like a Middle-Class, privileged thing, like only if you have the resources and there’s a lot of shaming around people who buy fast-fashion and things like that, even though that might be the only thing they can afford so I think maybe being eco-friendly doesn’t have to be this exclusive thing. Everyone can incorporate a bit of eco-friendliness into their lives.”
Their competition gave schools a lengthy list of eco-tasks – each worth a set number of points – so everyone could get involved in their own way.
Hannah shared some of the tasks that they’ve set schools:
- Creating display boards and posters
- Planting trees and wildflowers
- Litter picking
- Labelling switches
- Turning switches off
“Tasks include a broad list of things because some schools might not be able to complete all the tasks because of space or funding."
There were also incentives for the school with the first-place school receiving a trophy and a pencil with seeds at the bottom so when the pencil has run down, you can plant the seed. The two runners up also get a pencil. The group wanted to make sure the prizes were eco-friendly.
And just like that, the project went from three students to multiple schools, all working together to be a little kinder to the planet.
Their eco-competition will run for a year, giving schools time to complete their challenges. In May, they’re wrap it up with judging and crown the winners before the start of the summer.
Taking on Bigger Challenges
Stage 3 came with bigger dreams… and bigger hurdles.
Hannah said that Stage 3 was “a lot more difficult” due to transporting the trees and managing a bigger budget. Hannah said, “[It] was a lot more expensive than what we bought at Stage 1 and 2.”
But through it all, they stayed united. They split responsibilities based on their strengths and leaned on each other. “When it came to the lesson plan, I think that’s when we divided it up the most […] Daisy did the design because she’s the creative one.” Hannah said.
After asking what their biggest takeaway from completing the KEY+ Challenge was, the group said they have built their resilience. Edda said: “Definitely resilience. With the other projects it was more straightforward but [at Stage 3] we had to overcome more challenges, it took longer, we had to keep doing work and keep pushing.”
The group also said that they built their confidence, especially for photographs: “For Stage 1 we had water bottles and when we had to take the photo, we put the water bottles in front of our faces. But then for our Stage 2 we got bins, and our photo was us sat in the bins.”
What makes this group special isn’t just the project itself – it’s the growth that happened along the way.
The group have shared their advice to other young people hoping to take on the KEY+ Challenge as Hannah said: “I think this is something that we learnt at Stage 3, it’s that you don’t have to do a PowerPoint for your presentation because we did a PowerPoint for Stage 1 and 2, and it took us ages. We probably spent more time making the PowerPoint than we did making the project. I get that it helps, like for our Stage 1 we were just terrified.”
Another group member said: “Have fun, try not to fight too much but if you have a problem, you should bring it up. It’s a group project; you need to collaborate and do a lot of compromising.”
And perhaps the most powerful part of their story isn’t just the recycling or the trees – it’s just how far they’ve come. Their facilitator, Valerie, remembers the group crying before their first pitch at Stage 1, so worried she might have to pull them out. But they insisted they could do it. And they did.
From anxious beginnings to leading borough-wide change, The Funky Phoenixes have shown what’s possible when young people believe in an idea – and in themselves.
This project didn’t just make schools greener. It built confidence, resilience, and leadership skills that will stay with them far beyond the competition. A recycling bin might seem small, but this group proved that small actions can lead to big, lasting change.
About the author
The Key