[R]ebelling against rubbish has earned St Catherine’s Catholic Primary School in Penrith a £500 prize and a unique trophy.
The school has been celebrating after winning the Cumbria-wide Rubbish Rebels Challenge to cut down on waste. It was one of twenty primary schools and home educators from across the county that took part in this newly created competition funded by Cumbria County Council.
All the schools hosted a fun, interactive workshop about tackling rubbish, developed and run for the council by Cumbria Action for Sustainability (CAfS). The schools and parents were then challenged to make online pledges to reduce waste – from toy swaps to composting – with points for every pledge.
St Catherine’s emerged victorious, with Crosscanonby and Greystoke primary schools coming a close second and third.
The school hosted a special assembly on Wednesday 19 July, where they received a £500 prize and a unique trophy made from recycled materials by the Ragtag Arts and Community Scrapstore in Kendal. St Catherine’s plans to use the prize money to run a science week for the pupils.
Nic Ashby, the teacher who led the school’s Rubbish Rebels campaign, said the scheme has had a big impact there.
“My class took the messages about waste from the workshop out into the rest of the school and to their families as a wider community,” Nic said. “It’s had an effect in that they’ve all taken ownership of it and I think that’s why it’s been a success.”
The scheme has left a lasting legacy, with the children now more involved in dealing with waste at school.
“At break times and lunch times they were talking about it on the playground, and using the school compost bin. They’re more aware of what happens within our school community in terms of recycling and composting and reusing, and it’s really important that we make sure that dialogue continues into the future.”
Rubbish Rebels fitted in well with the school’s ethos of looking after the environment.
“It’s something that children innately know is important,” Nic said.
Tyler Carruthers, one of the St Catherine’s pupils who took part in Rubbish Rebels, said: “I liked the workshop a lot. It taught me a lot of things. We did a lot about recycling and reusing. I’ll recycle different things now, and not put things in the normal bin that can go in the recycling.”
Arthur Woof from Penrith, grandfather of a St Catherine’s pupil, was among the family members who attended the prize-giving assembly. He said the Rubbish Rebels scheme was a great way to get children into the habit of recycling from a young age.
“Starting at that age, they won’t know any different and will stop just throwing rubbish away,” Arthur said. “The scheme is a good idea – for plastic especially, because there’s an awful lot of it getting put into the sea.”
Judith Bradshaw, from the county council’s Waste Prevention Team, hopes Rubbish Rebels will have piqued interest in reducing waste.
“Early feedback is that it has been very popular and well received,” Judith said. “Hopefully it will give us something to work on for the future. I’d like to congratulate all the schools that took part and thank them for enthusiastically hosting the workshops during a very busy time of year for them. I hope they will all have benefited from bringing lots of different elements of the curriculum to life for their pupils through the scheme. Well done also to all the parents across the county who made pledges to reduce waste in various ways at home – from taking home less plastic packaging to giving away things they no longer need instead of throwing them away.”
Frankie O’Keeffe from CAfS, who ran the Rubbish Rebels workshops, praised the pupils who’d taken part for their enthusiasm and their caring attitude.
“It was really fun and the kids were so responsive,” Frankie said. “I really was impressed with how much they empathised with caring for the planet, for animals and for other people.
“The great thing about Rubbish Rebels is the way that the learning from the classroom was brought home to families as well as to other students in the schools. St Catherine’s showed that by really getting behind it, they were able to encourage lots of families to make pledges, and it all adds up to less waste going to landfill in Cumbria.”
Anyone who’d like ideas for reducing waste and cutting their carbon footprint in other ways can visit recycleforcumbria.org and sign up for the CAfS email newsletter at cafs.org.uk.
