School’s Should be Teaching Children to Keep Britain Tidy
Messages on the importance of keeping Britain tidy seem to have been binned so it’s time to use the curriculum to spread the word, says Michelle Carter…
Who remembers the Wombles? I read the books and watched the programmes and have been a Womble ever since.
They recently resurfaced on Wimbledon Common to support the Keep Britain Tidy campaign in ridding the country of discarded waste.
Have you noticed how much of it there is around lately?
When I am driving around the country and see roadsides full of litter I wonder what impression visitors have of our country as they travel around.
What has suddenly happened for there to be so much?
When I was a child there were advertisements on the TV from the Keep Britain Tidy campaign and the aforementioned Wombles of Wimbledon Common, and there was a definite stigma about dropping anything on the floor.
My partner used to work for Sky TV and told me they and the other channels were obliged to run these advertisements but when the laws were relaxed, the channels dropped them. Hence the Wombling message is not out there any more.
Councils have less and less money and do not seem to be clearing roadsides and rubbish as assiduously as they once did. Rubbish collects and it seems like nobody cares.
Wherever I walk I don my gloves and get litter-picking – even on my trips to the shops, when I get some funny looks.
Recently, I have walked the Cotswold and South Downs Ways and on both walks I have collected bags and bags of rubbish, especially along roadsides including country lanes.
People are dropping litter along country paths and are throwing items out of their cars. What has happened for this to be acceptable?
I spoke to a group of children in woods on the Cotswold Way and they thought it was terrible that I had collected so much and decided to collect litter themselves. Children need to be the voice of the nation to stop this in its tracks and actively encourage others to fight the battle too.
Young people are quite rightly going on marches about environmental concerns. I think that we can and need to start locally.
When I visit schools I often walk around the local environment and on an increasing number of visits I am noticing that litter trails are routes to school.
My friends and I often point out to children they have dropped litter and we often get a very surprised look as if they really did not think anything was wrong with dropping it. We’ve even been told, “It gets picked up so it doesn’t matter.” This has to change.
Simply telling people not to drop or throw litter doesn’t seem to be making a difference. I was in a school a few weeks ago where the children from a young age learnt about recycling and waste.
However, their playground was not litter free and the children were surprised when I pointed this out, as if they had not noticed.
Maybe a topic on litter or rubbish with actually looking at their habits and the litter collected in their environment and school could turn this attitude around.
There are a number of National Curriculum links that can be made to a topic on litter. It could be collected and maps could be completed showing where the litter was found (geography).
Once back at school litter could be sorted in many different ways and analysed (mathematics and science).
Pupils can think about the litter they have collected and who they think might have dropped it and why (mathematics – sorting, PSHE).
English ideas might include persuading people not to drop litter, writing for different audiences, letters could be written to the council outlining what the children have found and their ideas of how to reduce the litter.
Pupils could blog their findings (computing) and use some of the litter for junk modelling (art and design).
Children could consider which items of litter could be recycled and find out how this process happens (science). Pupils could look at how they could reduce, reuse and recycle more in their school environment.
If you and your children want to make a difference, why not get involved? Let’s create an army of Wombles!
Michelle Carter is director of Spark Education. To learn more about litter workshops and kickstart your project ideas, contact her at michellecarter2k@hotmail.com.
