Amazing work Lydgate Juniors!
We received an email this week from the teacher involved the great environmental that's taking place at Lydgate Junior School and it's no exaggeration to say how blown away we were! Their efforts to raise awareness of plastic pollution was not just limited to within their school, or to the parents and carers of the pupils - no, they succeeded on spreading key environmental messages far and wide.
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NEWS: Schools must reduce single-use plastics by 2022
OK, now we’ve heard it: Damian Hinds (Education Secretary) has told schools they must eliminate all single-use plastic items by 2022, but how are they going to achieve that?
Well, it just so happens that Kids Against Plastic have a FREE child-led initiative that will get the whole school onboard and meet the 2022 target, while empowering pupils to be change makers at the same time. The initiative is called Plastic Clever Schools.
Read more here about Damian Hinds’ announcement.
How to become a Plastic Clever School
Becoming a Plastic Clever School requires a school to take appropriate action needed to reduce their use of single-use plastic, including the BIG 4 plastic polluters (cups + lids, straws, bottles and bags), plus cutlery and crockery:
Kids Against Plastic is committed to helping schools succeed in their efforts to fight single-use plastic and have created all of the resources a school (with pupils leading the way) needs. And they are all freely available to any school wishing to get involved. All schools have to do to get started is REGISTER (using the form below).
So, what are you waiting for?
Start today: register your interest
We’ll then send you the resources and activity ideas you need to reach Plastic Clever status.STAGE 1: Register Interest
Let’s get this thing started…
STAGE 1: Register
Please fill in the form below to register your interest in becoming a Plastic Clever School. We’ll then send you a a digital Welcome Pack via email help get you started.
NB. If you’re already listed in our database, no need to re-register, we’ll send you the Welcome Pack. If you haven’t received it, drop us an email at hello@kidsagainstplastic.co.uk and we’ll re-send it.
Your digital Welcome Pack will contain:
- Progress Tracker – chart to mark stages completed along the Plastic Clever journey
- Ocean-themed clip art bundle – for displays and general use
- Printable poster – “We’re raising awareness of plastic pollution” a poster to help you galvanise support
- Support – ideas to help you complete the next Stage Raising Awareness
The Registration Form
Fill in the form and hit ‘Submit’ and your Welcome Pack will be sent straight to your inbox.
STAGE 2: Raise Awareness
STAGE 2: Raise Awareness
This stage is all about making as many people as possible aware of the issues associated with single-use plastic, whether it’s drinks bottles, cutlery or straws – it doesn’t matter! The important thing is you get people talking about plastic and how much they use.
Step 1: Inform
Overview – Inform pupils and staff of the issues around single-use plastic
Activity Ideas:
- Put together an assembly on plastic pollution
- Create a plastic pollution display
- Put information posters about the issues of plastic pollution around your school
Step 2: Audit
Overview – Survey and record how much single-use plastic is used around school, in the canteen and other applicable areas
Activity Ideas:
- Survey your school’s usage of single-use plastic (or plastic in general)
- Identify different types of single-use plastic used in school and key areas to be tackled (e.g. large number of plastic bottles in school canteen)
- Measure/count the plastic you have collected (this could be through school Eco Council members in charge of your collection)
- Extrapolate – scale up, assess impact (e.g. if we use this amount in one week it will be X in 1 year)
Step 3: Feedback
Overview – inform pupils and staff of the findings of previous stages, find targets to improve on (e.g. pupils bring less plastic into school)
Activity Ideas:
- Put up pupil-made posters around school to encourage others to stop using plastic
- Do an assembly (following up on Stage 1) to explain to students what the school will now do to reduce plastic
- Produce art exhibit from plastic waste to demonstrate the volume used in school per week
Step 4: Let us know
When you’ve completed the Raise Awareness step, send us a photograph using the form below and we’ll send you some goodies.
What’s in it for you …
On completion of this step (and Stage) Kids Against Plastic will post out to you:
- An educational A2 colour poster from the Deep aquarium
- A poster celebrating the school’s Raising Awareness success
…as well as email you some resources to help you progress to Plastic Clever School status (your next Stage to complete).
The Form
Fill in the form and hit ‘Submit’ and your goodies will be posted out to you.
STAGE 3: Become Plastic Clever
STAGE 3: Be Plastic Clever
Step1: Take Action Against Single-use Plastic – one BIG 4 item at a time
Overview – school begins to cut down use of single-use BIG 4 items ( bottles , cups + lids , straws and bags ) and encourages reusables among staff and pupils
Activity Ideas:
- Use your school audit to identify key areas of the school a BIG 4 item is used or made available
- Provide easy access for students to use own reusables: encourage use of tap water, fountains, washing facilities
- Encourage use of reusables through displaying posters (made by students or supplied) and discourage or inhibit the use of non-reusables
- Where single-use plastics can’t be avoided, provide information and recycling facilities
Step 2, 3 and 4:
Repeat Step 1, each time taking action against another of the BIG 4 items.
NB. if one or more of the BIG 4 items aren’t applicable to your school, then skip them and move onto the next item that is.
Step 5: Let us know
Send us a photo (or photos) of your efforts – using the form below.
What’s in it for you …
On completion of this step (and Stage) Kids Against Plastic will send you:
- A posh Plastic Clever School Certificate
- A Plastic Clever School celebration poster
- A hard copy of ‘Finn the Fortunate Tiger Shark and his Fantastic Friends’, a book by Georgina Stevens
- A family ticket (to raffle or award) to either The Deep (in Hull) or the National Marine Aquarium (in Plymouth)
The Form
Fill in the form and hit ‘Submit’ and your Plastic Clever School goodies will be posted out to you.
STAGE 4: Become Plastic Clever Plus!
Coming Soon!
Take steps towards becoming a Plastic Clever School
Recent Plastic Clever School Posts
Huge congratulations to Town Lane Infants for achieving Plastic Clever School status! The work that pupils did was nothing short of outstanding; so rich, colourful and creative. You can just tell they had so much fun learning.
We were so impressed that we wanted to use them as a great example of what can be achieved. We've included some of their photos too so you can see the exhibits the children worked on.
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A Powerpoint presentation made by students of Haydon Eco Club. The students created and used this as part of their KS2 / KS3 Transition Project. For more information about the…
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Haydon School Eco Club Karen Norton and her students ran an amazing project with her Eco Club that not only raised awareness and understanding of the issues associated with single-use plastic,…
DOWNLOADAmy and Ella recorded this video a couple of years ago when they were invited to speak in schools around the UK but couldn’t make it. The girls might look…
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Because of their commitment to reduce plastic waste as a company, as well as a service provider, Devon Norse have been recognised them as a Plastic Clever Business.
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