2019

Keinton Mandeville School

Totally Creative

Wales & West

27 Pupils Involved
  • Runner Up 2019

Plastic Pollution

The children watched part of the BBC dcumentary 'Drowning in Plastic' and had a visit in from a local lady who sells produce without any plastic packaging.  They found out about alternative plastic-free products, such as toothbrushes, shampoo and bamboo drinking containers. The children wrote information texts on a chosen part of this subject, made sculptures from single-use plastics, which families brought in for us to recycle, and put on a whole-school plastic awareness day which was planned, organised and run by six of the year six children.  Each class took part in plastic related activities during the day such as art, quizzes, treasure hunts, while the year sixes went on a plastic litter pick.

A whale sculpture was also created by everyone at the school throughout the day.  This was to symbolize the effect that plastic is having on the sea creatures in our oceans. Alongside this, the year sixes were designing and creating sculptures in pairs which were displayed as part of an art sculpture trail around the village. The children wrote descriptions to go with their sculptures which detailed why they had chosen their particular creature and the inspiration behind this. They also drew trail maps with ordnance survey symbols, which were available for families to collect from the local shop. In exchange for a small donation, families could then follow the trail and find letters which, when rearranged, spelt out a word connected to the overall topic.  Included in the trail map was a QR code for each sculpture, which provided a more detailed description of via the school website.  The whole community were involved, and the children raised approximately £80 which was shared between two environmental charities. The children did a fantastic job of raising awareness of the devastating consequences that plastic pollution can have and how important it is to reduce plastic waste in our everyday lives.