School children help Cosmo launch litter free schools
Cosmo the toad has made his first appearance of the Spring to launch this year’s Litter Free Schools initiative.
Cosmo, the Council’s environmental mascot, joined pupils from last year’s gold award winning school, St John’s Primary School in Earlswood, who helped him launch the scheme for 2010.
Sixteenth year
Litter Free Schools, now in its sixteenth year, is aimed at encouraging pupils to keep a tidy school environment and reminding them of the importance of keeping a clean environment in general.
An incredible 48 schools borough-wide are participating in this initiative, which is being sponsored by Kimberly-Clark for the fifth year running.
Fun and educational
Cllr Julian Ellacott, Executive Member for Environment, said: “The Litter Free Schools programme is a fun and educational way of reinforcing the important message that we can all help towards a keeping our environment clean and tidy.
"It is great that so many schools are taking part again this year and I wish all them all the best of luck.
“The scheme supports the Council’s ‘Love Where You Live’ campaign, which is aimed at getting local people to play an active part in maintaining clean and pleasant environments throughout the Borough.”
Inspections
Pupils at the participating schools work hard to keep their school’s playgrounds, playing fields, driveways and area outside the school clean and tidy in anticipation of visits from the Council’s eagle-eyed inspectors.
Inspectors visit each school twice, once on an arranged day and once to carry out an unannounced spot check.
Awards
During the visits the school is given marks for the cleanliness of different areas. Each school then gets a gold, silver or bronze award according to their total score.
To mark their litter-free achievement, the participating schools will be presented with certificates by the Mayor, with a little help from Cosmo, at a special Litter Free Schools awards ceremony at the Town Hall, Reigate, in July.
Nick Daniel, European HR Director for Kimberly-Clark, the initiative's sponsors, said: “Kimberly-Clark are pleased to sponsor this important initiative which will help the younger members of the local community become more aware of their environment and how they can help alleviate environmental problems such as litter.
“Sponsorship of this initiative is very much in keeping with Kimberly-Clark's commitment to continually improving its environmental stewardship."
For more information see the Litter Free School Awards page.
Last updated : 13/05/2010
