School celebrates ‘litter ambassadors’ title

Thorpe Hesley Primary has also arranged with Rotherham Council to become a pilot school for dedicated paper and plastics recycling, with recycling containers now in place around the school.

Earlier this month, we reported how children had arrived at school to find the playing fields “littered” with recyclable rubbish, which had in fact been saved up through the summer by staff to highlight the impact of littering.

The stunt marked the launch of the school’s new learning topic and pupils were challenged to collect a particular type of waste material before turning what they had picked up into eco-artwork.

Office manage Katie Dawson said recycling ambassadors from each year group would be responsible “for ensuring we are behaving responsibly as a school when it comes to recycling”.

She added: “Back in 2019, we contacted Rotherham Council to ask if it would be possible to have some recycling containers for our school.  

“We are a large primary school with over 500 pupils and were conscious that we had no recycling facilities in place like the ones we have in our homes for papers and plastics etc.

“Our children are very passionate about doing their bit for the environment and we believed recycling in school would be a huge benefit.

“After various discussions with the council we were told that there was no recycling provision in place for schools via the local council but it was something they hoped to be able to introduce at some point in the future.

“We contacted the council again earlier this year and were told that discussions were still taking place to introduce recycling, however no firm plans were in place.

“At this point, we decided to seek the support of  MP Sarah Champion.  

“After writing to Sarah, we received a response to say that having met many young people in Rotherham schools, she had always been impressed with their knowledge, understanding and concern for the environmental issues we face.  

“Sarah added that she would be very pleased to support our campaign, and she kindly wrote to RMBC on our behalf.

“Shortly after contacting the council, Sarah received a response from RMBC with an update regarding the government,s national waste strategy and the council’s approach to recycling in schools across the borough.  

“RMBC also confirmed that they were happy to work with our school to pilot their proposals.”

RMBC has provided recycling bins for paper, card, plastics and tins in each classroom and a collection schedule has been drawn up.

Katie added: “We hope that the pilot scheme is a success and that we see this system being introduced to other schools across the borough.”