Year 3 & 4 pupils at Stivichall Primary Coventry set up weekly clean-up crews and a school compost system. Their teacher explains how the project developed into something that continues to benefit the whole community.
The children initially spent a half term exploring the various issues affecting our local area before deciding to focus on litter and recycling.
They visited the local park to see the extent of the problem and wrote a survey to gather views locally. Another group looked at the use of current recycling bins in school and another focused on reducing plastic in lunchboxes at school.
The children decided to raise awareness of the issues by delivering an assembly and creating posters that were displayed throughout the school. They also interviewed the SSCO to ask about current recycling practices in school.
They organised a ‘Break the Rules Day’ to raise money to buy litter pickers. These litter pickers are now used weekly by the schools ‘clean-up crew’ who give up their lunch breaks to litter pick in their local area.
The teacher commented, ‘the students were so proud to organise the day to raise money for these.’
During the project the children faced some challenges, one class wanted a compost bin for the whole school to use but the council wouldn’t provide one for free. Instead, they decided to order a small one for each classroom instead.
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