Albourne CE School celebrated World Oceans Day with the primary school children carrying out a range of activities, including taking part in a Junk Orchestra.

“Our focus was on preventing plastic pollution, and the children made fish from plastic bottles, turning them into shoals for display, as well as fashioning instruments and sea creatures from plastic and card packaging,” said Headteacher Mrs Claxton.

The Junk Orchestra held interactive workshops, with children playing instruments made from plastic barrels and flip flops and other bits of rubbish, with the whole school, dressed in blue or as sea creatures, dancing along to the junkyard beat.

One of the school parents, Mrs French, is rowing 100 miles along the Cornish Coast to raise awareness of the need to protect our oceans.

“The children learnt lots of facts about oceans through a quiz and about the damage caused by large scale fishing and plastic pollution. The children said, as two thirds of our planet is water, we shouldn’t be called Planet Earth but Planet Ocean,” said Mrs Claxton.

“It was a fantastic day of learning, making the children aware that when they throw rubbish ‘away’ it doesn’t disappear but becomes someone else’s problem. The fun activities carried a serious and important message of conservation and the need for everyone to play their part in raising awareness and taking personal responsibility.”