Thousands of pupils across UK join our Live Lessons on litter and waste

With our Spring Clean Scotland campaign getting off to a flying start last week, schools have given us even more reason to celebrate with thousands of pupils from across the UK joining in with our Live Lessons on litter and waste.

A total of 485 Scottish classes registered for Live Lessons, with 20 in Wales, 37 classes in Northern Ireland and 18 in England, reaching 12,125 pupils. Working with Eco Schools Scotland, Scottish SPCA and Auchindrain Historic Township, we held a morning of workshops on 21 March and an assembly celebrating pupils’ work on 25 March.

We know young people feel strongly about caring for the environment and want to do something about the harmful effects of litter in their communities. We are delighted that so many children, from every country in the UK and 31 local authority areas in Scotland, came together to learn about the harmful effects of litter on wildlife, why modern plastics are such a problem when disposed of incorrectly, and how litter dropped on land ends up in the sea.

The SSPCA talked about garden birds and hedgehogs, took the children on a virtual tour of a recovery facility and revealed the ways litter harms animals, and how the SSPCA helps when this happens. Pupils designed litter monsters and came up with creative ways to tackle litter. A virtual tour of the historic township of Auchindrain compared today’s throwaway society with the Auchindrain community, which reused as much as possible and left very little behind.

Andrea Gabriel, Education Support Officer for Keep Scotland Beautiful, said: “The level of engagement was extremely positive, with schools emailing us their work until the very last minutes of yesterday. Hundreds of yarn dollies and litter monsters were produced, in all shapes and colours! And best of all, many schools have got in touch already, sharing with us how much we made them think about the situation around litter and waste, and how they are beginning to challenge themselves and take action about it, from litter picking to rethinking what they use and how they use it.”

Lessons were accompanied by a set of classroom activities to do during the workshops and throughout the school week and the sessions were recorded to watch again later.

Sessions on biodiversity will be held on 9 and 13 March and sessions on water will be held on 6 and 10 June. Register in advance, watch a recording of March's Live Lesson and find out more.