https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/education/school-events/2019/07/09/shropshire-pupils-stage-school-climate-strike-to-coincide-with-mps-visit/
Ten children from
nursery, primary and high school, staged a school climate strike in Bishops
Castle, last Friday. The organiser, Archie (my boy 💓) explained how the strike came about:
“Me and some friends
were motivated to organise this climate strike after hearing about the others
across the world, inspired by Greta Thunberg. We are in the middle of a climate
emergency created by adults but because we children can’t vote, politicians are
ignoring us. The school strikes have given us a way to have our voices heard. It’s
our planet that is being destroyed. And our future”.
Plastic pollution is
also a big concern for Archie, “When you throw out plastic (& baby wipes)
it often ends up in a place called the Pacific gyre. It’s an island of waste
plastic, about 3 times the size of France.
The strike was
organised to coincide with MP, Philip Dunne’s, visit to one of the schools in
town. It gave all of the children, irrespective of whether they attended the school,
a chance to show their MP their concern about climate change.
Archie explained: “I
heard that Mr Dunne was involved in helping to ban plastic straws so I wanted
to congratulate him on that and to ask him to make banning fossil fuels his
next mission”.
Dandelion (10) wanted
to ask Mr Dunne about recycling, “I’m concerned that it seems the council are
making it harder to recycle in town as they had taken away the public recycling
bins”.
Chloe (12), who attends
a different school to the one that Mr Dunne was visiting, explained why she
wanted to be involved in the strike: “I think it is important that we take
climate change seriously because we only have 12 years left to do something
before we've gone so far the planet can't get better”.
India (10) said that
she joined the strike “for more to be done to stop climate change”.
Whilst waiting for Mr
Dunne, the children discussed the news that authorities are making contingency
plans for the potential evacuation of a Welsh town, called Fairbourne, which is
being gradually reclaimed by rising sea levels and erosion. Residents are
referred to as potentially the UK’s “first climate change refugees”.
Many of the children
had recently watched “The war on plastic” on the BBC, which they found shocking.
Poppy (10) explained how the programme motivated her family: “We do this thing
where we go to the supermarket and any plastic we don’t want on products, like
tomatoes or grapes, we return them. We write on them #ourplasticfeedback”.
Aren’t School Strikes just an excuse to miss
school?
The global school
strikes have been dismissed by some as “just an excuse to miss school”, but
Archie thinks that’s unfair. “I go to the best school in the world. I love my
school. My teacher and the head and all the staff are awesome. I have worked
very hard for my SATs recently. But, the best education in the world is not
much good if we have no planet”.
The strike started at
8.30am on Friday and ended when Mr Dunne arrived at 10am. While waiting for
their MP’s arrival, the children made good use of their time. Having marched to
the town hall with their placards (getting lots of thumbs up and “well done
kids”, along the way), India suggested doing a litter sweep of the park, “I
suggested we go to the park and collect rubbish because normally there is a lot
there. We collected nearly 2 bags full. I think we should all be thinking about
looking after our planet and our local environment”.
Under careful adult
supervision, the children filled a (cloth) bag full of litter, including a lot
of plastic bottles, before taking their haul back to school to show Mr Dunne in
assembly and later recycle.
The children greeted
their MP’s arrival with smiles and waves, which he graciously reciprocated.
Dandelion’s mum, Liz
said, “The kids were so dignified and polite. I believe it was a real
educational experience, especially listening to them articulate what they
wanted to say to Mr Dunne. I’m very proud of them all”.
