A STALYBRIDGE school’s fight to make its pupils understand the benefits of clean air has made it on to national TV.
Children and staff at Gorse Hall Primary have launched a scheme called, ‘What’s the Solution to the Pollution?’
And their efforts were brought to a national audience as it featured on BBC One’s The One Show.
Year Five teacher Kathleen Hughes explained why they ae doing it at the school, which lies beside the busy Acres Lane.
She said: “We do have a duty of care to protect our children. I think that we do have a responsibility to make sure the air they breathe is good.”
Gorse Hall was also subject of a clean air audit by Hannah Battram of the group Global Action Plan, who was concerned with the school’s location next to a busy road.
She also proposed installing a natural barrier of plants along the fence on that side of the site.
She said: “There’s a really large volume of traffic and that’s quite a concern, especially when you see how close the school is.
“There’s no physical barrier to stop pollution coming in.”
Children, including the school’s Eco Committee, checked for signs of air pollution effecting the trees and outlined why it is a concern, saying: “It could affect us as bad air could get into our lungs and make us really poorly.”
And Gorse Hall’s work impressed the visiting crew and experts.
A spokesman said: “They were really impressed with the work our children and Eco Committee are doing to raise awareness about breathing polluted air and ways we can improve the air quality around us by: walking to school or using public transport, switching off idling engines and planting more trees.
“They loved meeting Ashley John-Baptiste too – they were are all superstars.”