Micklehurst All Saints CE Primary in Mossley places an emphasis on working with the local community. In their latest monthly column for The Correspondent, the school council team up with Ryder and Dutton and Mossley litterbugs to tackle the issue of litter in the area.
At Micklehurst All Saints CE Primary school, elected School Council Representatives meet on a regular basis to discuss important issues in school and the wider community. During the spring term the Council discussed the issue of litter in Mossley, with children concerned that despite the efforts of Mossley Litterbugs, litter was still a real issue around school and Mossley in general.
The Council invited into school members of Mossley Litterbugs who delivered an assembly on the issue of litter and the damaging effect that it can have on the community and wildlife. Children learnt about the problem of litter in the local area and things that they could do while out and about and at home to take ownership of the problem. For example, putting litter in their pockets while they were out and taking it home to recycle, not putting litter in over flowing litter bins and undertaking their own mini litter picks on their streets or journeys around Mossley.
Children also learnt about the issues that litter could cause for wildlife in terms of destroying habitats and animals becoming unwell from eating litter mistaken for food.
As a school children came together and designed anti-litter posters that were displayed around school and all classes took part in litter picks around the local community. Inspired by the children’s hard work and dedication Ryder & Dutton Estate Agents in Mossley provided school with additional new litter picks and other community members also donated equipment to school to help the children with their on-going work in the community.
Year 4 Teacher, Miss Snioch who runs the School Council said “the project has been really good at informing and teaching the children about litter. Of course some children do deliberately drop litter and the school council have worked hard to explain the impact of this and why everyone needs to take responsibility for caring for our community.
However, even those children who would never drop litter came to realise that unwittingly they could be adding to the problem, for example by over filling bins with rubbish which could then blow out in the wind, or putting recyclable items in street bins rather than taking them home to recycle. It was good that children considered the wider picture of how best to control the problem. Many children have started doing mini litter picks on the way to and from school and we have a number of dedicated parents/carers that also support these activities”.
Following on from their work regarding litter in the local community, the next project that the Council is going to implement is looking at how, as a whole school, we can reduce use of plastic in lunch boxes and the school environment and how this can also be linked into healthy eating.
Alice Rimmer from Ryder & Dutton’s Mossley branch said: “It’s fantastic to see these little eco-warriors making a difference to their local area. Small actions such as putting rubbish in a bin can have such a positive impact on the local environment, and we should all learn a lesson from these young people. We were delighted to provide the children with their litter picking equipment.”
