The playground Poo Patrollers
Frustrated pupils in clean-up
Pupils at Fallin Primary School have been calling foul on irresponsible dog owners – and making a difference in their school grounds.
The P5 youngsters – dubbed the Poo Patrollers – have been out and about tackling dog mess problems around the playground. In just one of their cleanups, they helped take away a shocking 54 bits of dog mess. However, thanks to their campaign, this figure is continuing to fall, with 16 at the last count. Now they hope to ensure the issue is eradicated once and for all. In an open letter to people in the area the Poo Patrollers, who wear rubber gloves and goggles during their work, say: “This year we have been set a challenge. At the moment our whole school is trying to tidy our school grounds and make them a clean and a fun place to play and learn. But we have a big problem.
“Lots of people walk their dogs through our school playgrounds and some people are spoiling our environment by not picking up their dogs poo. It’s disgusting and we want it to stop.
“Our class job is to highlight to the community the problems that this is causing the school.
“During our first week on our poo patrol we found 48 pieces of dog mess around the school where we play every day.
“We are taking responsibility to look after our environment and we always try our best to show respect and not spoil our grounds by dropping litter so why are some people not cleaning up after their dogs?
“We have now completed poo patrol over several weeks and although the number of poos counted have fallen this number is still too high. We want people to know about our problem and to encourage people to show respect as is in our school values.”
Teacher Eilidh Outram said: “The children have engaged really well with the project and the community have been so helpful too. The children can be heard chanting as they spray ‘one, two, pick up poo, three, four, no more!”
“We have seen a decrease in the number of poos around the school with our highest amount being 54 during our second Friday. This has now fallen to 16 when we last counted. Everyone is very hopeful that this continues and decreases.
“The children would like to urge everyone to pick up after their dogs so that they don’t have to spray poos in the grounds. This includes putting poo bags in the bin and not hanging them from trees.
“It would be too easy for someone to fall while playing and land in some so please be mindful when walking your dog.”