The Plastic Clever School programme offers schools free resources including teacher toolkits and curriculum-aligned pupil workbooks that have been approved by the Royal Meteorological Society.
Schools that are “plastic clever” work to reduce plastic waste in their school and local communities while also equipping pupils to be active citizens.
The initiative has been created by Common Seas, which exists to “stop the flow of plastic pollution”, and youth-led charity Kids Against Plastic. It is being run in more than 1,000 schools worldwide, including 951 in the UK.
It consists of three stages – learning about plastic pollution, investigating plastic pollution in-school, and taking action to tackle the problem through activities including audits designed to identify and swap out single-use plastic items.
As well as the curriculum resources, participating schools can also access on-going support via a digital platform as well as teacher training webinars and workshops for pupils.
Among the UK schools taking part is River School, a primary school based in Kent. Ms Stevens, a teacher at the school and coordinator of its Ocean Ambassadors Group, said: "We are keen to reduce the amount of plastic that we use in school and to encourage our wider school community to look at ways to reduce, reuse and recycle too. Living by the coast and the River Dour, looking after our waterways and the ocean is especially important to us."
Sarah Duffy, the head of education at Common Seas, said: “Plastic pollution is one of the biggest issues facing the world today, and we know that children will be the change-makers, leaders and environmental advocates of the future. By equipping children with the knowledge and power to understand the plastic problem, they can tackle the issue with the help of peers, educators and their communities.”
- For more information, visit https://plasticcleverschools.co.uk/ and https://commonseas.com/