Day 5 School #8: Durweston CE VA Primary

Looking back along Milton Lane towards Winterborne Stickland
as I catch my breath after the climb

Confession: I was slightly apprehensive about this cycle. More than slightly. Dorchester to Durweston, avoiding the terrifying Blandford Road, is about 17 miles (via Dewlish, Milborne St Andrew, Milton Abbas and Winterborne Stickland) and not remotely flat. It was also hot. With forecast temperatures in the high 20s I set off, with a degree a trepidation. Despite the considerable ups it was an enjoyable and picturesque ride with plenty a panoramic view.



Part of the school building (taken for the benefit of the
Renewable Energy Officer - how many solar panels will it fit?)

Durweston is a small primary school in a stunning location; another of Dorset's small schools where you feel that genuine 'family' vibe the moment you walk in. I had been invited by the Seahorses class (Year 3) to find out about the work they'd been doing on plastic.


Before I describe it, here's the most brilliant thing about their plastic project: it wasn't at all planned. Mrs Stirk, the teacher, had her half term all planned out. But one morning in assembly, the Head Teacher had shown a picture of a beach covered in washed-up plastic waste. The children were enthralled, and perplexed.

The Indian coast of the Arabian Sea

(photo credit: Rajanish Kakade, Associated Press)

Where had the waste come from? How had it come to be polluting the beach like that? Where else in the world is there plastic on beaches and in oceans? Could Durweston be part of the problem? The children had so many questions!


Mrs Stirk is clearly one of those teachers keen to feed the children's interest (and perhaps also someone who knows when she's outnumbered). So ditching her planned learning, she and her class spent the following weeks covering the curriculum by exploring all their plastic questions. A huge hats-off to Mrs Stirk and Mrs Brooke!

1. Science and Maths

Wanting to find out whether plastic litter was a problem in their school, the children designed a survey to compare the amount and types of rubbish in the ground in different parts of the school and the village. They had to think hard about how to make sure it was a fair comparison! Groups of children surveyed different areas - the field, the front of the school, the road outside and the playground -  and recorded what types of litter they found. Presenting their results in graphs helped them to answer a few of their burning questions......

Some of the children's graphs. Apologies for the bad photography,
Reg got a bit over-excited

Yes, even in lovely Durweston the children found plastic litter on the ground - plenty of it! Inside the school gates, they mostly found plastic wrappers (from crisps, biscuits, cheese strings, yogurt - you can picture it!). The messiest place however was the play park, where as well as the wrappers they found hard plastic items like pen lids and cable ties. 

Nothing like using real-life data to bring your statistics work to life!
Take a look at their class blog for photos of the rubbish they found in those different places.

2. Art

The children found inventive ways of using what would have been throwaway plastics to make some attractive items. How do you like them roses?

3. Design challenge

Plastic is a unique material with lots of useful properties, which the children explored. Their challenge was to raid the recycling bins and to design something new using the plastic items they found.

A range of different bird feeders were on display, all designed and made by the children using plastic bottles in different ways.

You can read more about these fantastic activities on their class  blog.

4. Whole school campaigning, and an excellent pun

Having explored the properties of plastic and gathered data about plastic waste in school, the children decided it was time for action! Their idea was to encourage everyone in school to reduce the amount of plastic they brought to school in their packed lunches by holding a low waste lunch.  

The children worked out simple swaps they could make for a more eco-friendly lunch box. Helpfully, when they looked at it they realised that the changes they thought of also made for healthier lunches......so the Low WASTE Lunch became Low WAIST Lunch!

To give children and parents ideas they shared this YouTube video on 'How to Pack a Waste-Free Lunch' in their school newsletter - well worth a watch for some great tips!

Questions, questions, questions......

Having done so much work about plastic, the children had come up with a lot of thoughtful questions.  One was 'when did litter start?'. What a question! Would there have been litter in Blandford in 1918 or 1818? Thinking about the types of things we find as litter, we thought it must have had something to do with the invention of takeaway food and pre-prepared food products in the 20th Century.

(I later tracked down some helpful resources on this subject - see The Pod's History of Food Packaging Timeline and this Sky News clip on the history of plastic).

There were many other questions about the scale of the plastic problem, in Dorset and around the world. The children had done lots of their own research and come up with some statistics which they weren't sure about. How much plastic do we use in the UK? Is it true that only 25% of plastic in recycling bins actually gets recycled? What proportion of Dorset's waste is made up of plastic?

Sometimes it's ok to say you don't know. I had no idea what the answers to the children's questions were, so I bravely told them so and promised to ask someone who would know. Fortunately I have some very helpful contacts at the Dorset Waste Partnership! See my next blog post for some pertinent answers to these pertinent questions....

E-bike Lovers Anonymous 

I couldn't possibly finish this post without a mention of the utterly inspiring Head teacher, Mrs Brooke. Already a keen cyclist, Mrs Brooke recently acquired an e-bike and since then has used it for her daily commute from her home in Wareham into school every day. Together we compared notes and enthused about the (many many) pros and (hardly any) cons of e-bikes. 

My 'I've found a shady spot and
 I'm never leaving' face

Hard to tell, but this is melting tarmac on

the road near Dewlish!

Mrs Brooke made the salient observation that in most cases, e-bikes replace cars, not bikes, while also pointing out that the hill I had to climb on my route back to Dorchester is a killer even when you have battery assistance. She was right on both fronts.
By the time I was cycling back it was noon and HOT....so hot that the roads were becoming sticky and the bike made little 'popping' sounds as I rode through little spots of sticky tarmac.


Tempting though it was to loiter and admire the scenery, the Seahorses had given me homework to do......so it was full steam back to Dorchester and recycling statistics!