Laxdale youngsters are hailed as green pioneers
A class of 11-year-old Lewis pupils have been recognised as environmental pioneers after wowing sustainability experts in a national competition.
The competition was part of leading travel company TUI UK and Ireland’s Better World Detectives programme, which forms a key part of the company’s sustainability strategy and is designed to use the excitement of travel to stimulate young imaginations and practically engage children in the global issue of sustainable tourism.
Aimed at seven- to 11-year-olds, the programme provides captivating teaching resources and cross-curricular lesson plans which not only equip students with the knowledge to better understand key issues, but actively encourages them to consider what they can do to help protect the environment.
Laxdale Primary pupils on Lewis impressed with their creativity and passion to make a difference to the environment.
The youngsters created The Plastic Pollution Patrol, holding a full school assembly explaining all their learnings and replacing all canteen plastic straws with paper straws.
They also worked with the younger classes to create plastic pollution displays throughout the school and created a huge turtle – one of the creatures most at risk from marine plastic pollution – out of recycled bottle tops.
To acknowledge their achievements, TUI UK and Ireland organised a special hands-on learning day in collaboration with the Marine Conservation Society.
As well as classroom activities, the students explored the nearby beach and went on a ‘rubbish’ treasure hunt looking out natural and litter items, and calculating how many years it would take for plastic items to biodegrade.
Betty Hepburn, P7 teacher at Laxdale, said: ‘The children were really inspired by Better World Detectives and wanted to share what they’d learned with the whole school.
‘The pupils were so excited to have won the competition and they thoroughly enjoyed their learning workshop with the Marine Conservation Society.
‘It’s really important that this generation is educated on sustainability issues – which is why it’s great that big companies like TUI are putting resources like Better World Detectives into the education system because that will help eradicate the problems we face.’
Director of Sustainability at TUI UK and Ireland, Jane Ashton added: ‘We were so impressed by the pupils at Laxdale; their response to Better World Detectives is exactly what we aim for.’