Young environmentalists from St Gregory’s Catholic Primary in Margate have teamed up with Save The Children for a beach clean in their home town.
A team of 85 Year 3 and 4 pupils headed for the main sands armed with collection bags after being invited by Save The Children to become part of their social media and website ‘save our oceans’ campaign.
It follows a successful partnership earlier this year between the school and the charity when pupils created colourful artwork, slogans and poetry based to help support the promotion.
A collection of the artwork produced in the first session is going to be made into merchandise by Save the Children and it will sell in charity shops to raise funds for the cause.
Due to the popularity of the designs amongst their campaign designers, Save the Children approached the school for a second opportunity to work together.
On Margate main sands the children collected a huge and varied amount of rubbish left behind by visitors and disposed of it correctly – a crew from Save The Children was on hand to capture video footage and photos highlighting the vital role mankind must play to look after the planet.
Pupil Zedd said: “I found so much plastic that was left behind by people. If we didn’t pick it up, it was going to end up in our seas and who knows what creatures might eat it.”
Fellow pupil Isla added: “It was so much fun getting to help tidy up our beach but it made me sad how we collected hundreds of pieces of rubbish which would have damaged our beautiful ocean.”
Teacher Noah Graham is Lower Key Stage 2 leader. He said: “This was a fantastic opportunity for our children and we are really thankful to Save The Children for choosing St Gregory’s to lead on this campaign.
“It was wonderful to see the children’s passion come alive standing up for and protecting their environment. We are all now eagerly awaiting to see the merchandise with our own eyes and are eager to see the footage captured on our beach clean-up promoting the campaign across their websites and social media platforms.”
