So proud of my boy & his friends for staging a school climate strike!

I couldn't find any other primary strikes online so these 10 kids are trailblazing climate warriors! They got the coverage they deserved here 👇

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”.