Farr Primary School wins Spring Clean competition

Issued by Keep Scotland Beautiful

Farr Primary School, Bettyhill has scooped a prize for their hard efforts during a litter clean in April which was part of Keep Scotland Beautiful’s (KSB) National Spring Clean 2010 campaign. 

The primary school was picked at random from a prize draw, and won £100 of vouchers to be spent on environmental improvements within their school.

The clean up event carried out by Farr Primary School involved pupils and adults, who cleaned up the school grounds, the beach and the local neighbourhood.  The group was one of 84 who cleaned up their favourite grot spots in Highland this April.  A representative from the school said, "The day was really successful because we collected 20 bags of rubbish from the beach and surrounding pathways.  The children have now set up a ‘keep our village clean’ campaign where they have created posters and want to sponsor a bin for the beach.  They have carried out surveys of the different types of rubbish and talked to local shop keepers.  They have also created a puppet show to get the message across to our Primary One-Three class and are creating a video to show to local residents.  The Spring Clean has unlocked and tapped into the pupils thinking on responsible citizens, which is a fantastic result.  I’d like to say thanks to all who came to pick up litter and thanks to the Highland council for providing us with the necessary tools."

More than 83,000 volunteers, 4,676 of these were from Highland – 3,782 of these were children, gave their time during April to support Keep Scotland Beautiful’s National Spring Clean campaign and to rid the country of discarded rubbish.  Using litter pickers and gloved hands each person collected on average one and a half black bags of waste - that is enough to fill 42,000 standard household wheelie bins!

Many groups also recycled the litter they collected this year, helping reduce the amount going to landfill and supporting Scotland’s zero waste targets.  Zero Waste Scotland provided funding to support the event.

Chief Executive of Keep Scotland Beautiful, John Summers OBE, said, "The sheer number of people who gave up their time to really make a difference to their local area is staggering.  We are extremely grateful to all the volunteers at Farr Primary School for donning their tabards and proving that cleaning up can also be fun.”

National Spring Clean 2010 may be over but people can still organise and take part in clean up events throughout the rest of the year.  Clean Up Kits can be ordered on line at www.keepscotlandbeautiful.org/cleanupkit

16 Jun 2010