News Archive - School's week of green lessons

Pupils at a Grays primary school have been busy learning about the environment and their part in it.

Little Thurrock Primary School, in Rectory Road, held an Environmental Arts Week last week with all the lessons devoted to the subject.

There were four areas for the pupils to concentrate their efforts on, Healthy Body and Healthy Mind; Dig Deep; Design in Nature; and Art All Around.

Mixed age groups took part in activities in each area through the week which finished on Friday, 17 June.

Among the activities was planting - vegetables, plants and shrubs, many of which were donated by parents - working in the school's conservation area and its woodland area and creating an environment to attract wildlife for the pupils to study.

The school also invited different organisations to show the pupils various environmental themes including Thurrock Council's Waste and Recycling Education Officer Sharon Pritchard took along sunflower seeds.

Not only did the children have a chance to plant them in The Retreat - an area for quiet contemplation - they also made "magic" disappearing flowerpots from newspaper.

Each child was encouraged to take the "pot" full of earth and a seed home to plant where the newspaper pot would degrade naturally.

Other organisations included Thurrock Rangers from Langdon Hills Country Park, the RSPB, Essex Wildlife Trust and the Quantum Theatre Group which put on an environmental play on Friday.

Anna Baker, one of the school's teachers who organised the week-long event, said: "It's been hard work, but well worth it. The children have been learning all about the environment they live in; they've been learning to respect it and how their actions can affect it."