Page 29 - Day of Action

5.4

School examples

Waunfawr Primary School, Caerphilly Barry Island Primary School, Vale of Pembroke Primary School,

Glamorgan Monmouthshire

The Eco-Committee took full ownership of a campaign The BBC heard how children at Barry Island Primary, Year 5 pupils who regularly collected the recycling
to reduce the amount of plastic in their school and inspired by Blue Planet, organised a project to reduce bags were concerned about the amount of plastic
raise awareness of the ocean plastic problem. They their ‘plastic footprint’ and sent a film crew to record recycling. They raised awareness of the issue with
named it ‘Back to the Future in Glass Milk Bottles’ with their activities. everyone in the school and investigated ways of
the hashtag #DoYouHaveTheBottle. They worked with making an improvement. They also researched what
the school kitchen to reduce plastic usage and created The school council and eco committee created the was happening with plastic on a local and global level.
a campaign to stop the use of plastic milk bottles in ‘Lunchbox Challenge’ for pupils to measure the
the foundation phase, swapping them to reusable glass amount of plastic in their lunchboxes. Pupils organised and took part in a whole school Earth
bottles. Day, where pupils discussed activities to reduce single
There was a reduction from 303 pieces of plastic use plastic, worked out what plastic they needed as
Pupils led the campaign, writing letters to the council across the whole school to 187 and a much greater a school and focused on improving their recycling.
and MPs, attending meetings and interviews and awareness of the issue, which has been long lasting. They entered a Plastic Free Chepstow competition
developed actions including poster competitions, The school has also been featured on the BBC Plastic called Straws off Streets and looked at Global plastic
plastic pledges and lunchbox waste investigation. They Watch website as ‘Plastic Heroes’. The Headteacher pollution in a school Global Learning week.
also held an open afternoon for the community and a said “the children wanted to make a difference in
“Plastic Boycott” event. their own school environment. It has already had an Each class produced a poster and shared with the rest
overwhelming impact and more importantly helps in of the school in an assembly. These were displayed in
They worked out that their actions reduced plastic the education of vital environmental issues.” the hall and were uploaded for parents to view.
usage by 5616 plastic water bottles, 3km of cling film bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06bt596
and 12,960 plastic milk bottles! Result! Foundation Phase classes have adopted the
Monmouthshire council’s policy of using glass milk
bottles and cups for their daily milk.