A GROUP of children, parents and staff from Stratton Primary School joined forces with Marhamchurch Primary School to take part in a beach clean on Widemouth Bay, organised by Stratton’s school council and co-ordinated by Ado Shoreland. With buckets in one hand and grabbers in the other, the children set to work scouring the beach for rubbish.

After finding plenty of rubbish washed up along the shore, the total was weighed — resulting in 11kg of plastic, all from human waste!

A spokesperson from Stratton Primary School said: “Many thanks to all who came along and supported this event and especially to Ado Shoreland from the Widemouth Task Force for explaining the importance of looking after our beaches, providing equipment and the following analysis of the rubbish collected.”

Some of the items the children found were: broken down fishing crates and cut off netting from boats; lobster tags from Canada and North America; bottle tops and wrappers from inland rivers; and several balloons.

Carrying on the plastic free theme, students in Pine, Maple and Willow classes celebrated David Attenborough’s 93rd birthday and learnt all about his life and work. They also wrote letters and made cards to send to him, and Miss Willey sent a sample of these to Sir David who sent a reply to the class.

The students also recently celebrated the schools first ever ‘Plastic Free Day’. At break time, the school’s ‘Eco-Warriors’ collected children’s crisp packets and were delighted that the amount of plastic waste produced was reduced from five bags to just three quarters of a bag this time. Some children had even made their own ‘branded’ paper bags to bring their crisps in!

If this happened every Friday, the school would still produce 27 bags of non-recyclable waste per year but this is significantly better than the current 180 bags!

Children across the school took part in a variety of activities around reducing plastic and the effects of plastic on the environment. Year 3 used Skype to interview Ellie Jackson, the author of ‘Duffy’s Lucky Escape’, one of a series of books that teach children about ocean plastics in a positive and inspiring way with happy endings and ideas for the future. Year 6 designed and made their own bacteria from plasticine to clean up micro-plastics.

A spokesperson from the school said: “A huge thank you to all parents for the efforts put into reducing plastic in packed lunches that day. It was great to see just how little plastic it is possible to use!

“We hope that this event will encourage all of us to think about how much plastic we use in our everyday lives and to make small changes to reduce our plastic footprint on the earth.”