Geese fouling school fields will be shot

♦ Geese are to be shot to prevent them messing on a school’s playing fields. Saxon primary school in Shepperton, Surrey, has said it will start culling flocks of Canada Geese because the health of their pupils is under threat from the amount of bird faeces.

The decision was taken after efforts to frighten birds with a hawk failed and despite a petition against the cull signed by about 10,000 people.

A Royal Society for the Protection of Birds spokesman said it hoped this would be a “learning opportunity” for the pupils to explore the “interconnectedness of people with nature”.