Students' bee-inspired beats grab first place in national competition

Bee Aware Month raises awareness of the importance of bees to New Zealand's ecosystems, food chain and economy.
Bee Aware Month raises awareness of the importance of bees to New Zealand's ecosystems, food chain and economy. Photo credit: Getty

A group of Lower Hutt school students have won first place in a music video competition that highlights the importance of bees in New Zealand.

Avalon Intermediate School won the 'Bee Aware Month Primary Schools' Video Competition, with their bee-inspired music video "Heart and Soul".  

The competition is held annually as part of Bee Aware Month, a nationwide educational campaign co-ordinated by Apiculture New Zealand (ApiNZ).

Bee Aware Month is held every September to raise awareness of the importance of bees to New Zealand's ecosystems, food chain and economy.  

A key part of the campaign was to engage primary school children, and this year, students were challenged to create a video of two minutes or under on the theme "Love our Bees".   

ApiNZ chief executive, Karin Kos said she was thrilled by the number and quality of entries in this year's competition, but said Avalon Intermediate's video stood out. 

"It showed fantastic creativity and talent from the students, but also, importantly, there was lots of information in there too," she said.

She said the high calibre of entries from schools across New Zealand made judging difficult. 

"The students had obviously worked really hard to learn about bees and share this information in a fun and entertaining way," said Kos.

"We took a long time deliberating over the winners."

Second place was claimed by Mararoa School of Te Anau, while third place was won by Holy Cross School in Auckland.

Newshub.