Sherborne Primary School is now officially a plastic-free school after achieving accreditation from Surfers Against Sewage. Plastic Free Schools is a pupil-led initiative designed to help guide schools through the process of ditching single-use plastic.
Sherborne Primary’s Eco Committee, made up of pupils from Years 1 to 6, has led the campaign to rid the school of single-use plastics. They started by using ‘trash mobs’ to conduct litter picks around the school and identify the single-use plastics that they wanted to ban, including milk cartons (which come with plastic straws and lots of plastic wrapping), single-use hand sanitiser sprays and the cakes and cookies served at lunchtime – which were all individually wrapped in plastic.
The school now uses washable beakers for milk, refillable hand sanitisers and cardboard trays for cakes and cookies. The Eco Committee has also held assemblies, written to a local MP and to Walkers crisps about its packaging.
Fran Ellis, a teacher at the school and the Eco Committee lead said, “The children truly believe that this is a cause worth fighting for, and we are determined to make our school and local community as green as possible!”