SCHOOLCHILDREN in Little Leigh have been working hard to help clean up their area.

Pupils at Little Leigh Primary School have been out in their community litter picking, hoping to encourage other residents to be more careful with their rubbish and to recycle where possible.

The Year One class teacher, Stephanie Taylor-Wattam, said: “I think it will make the children think twice when disposing of their own bottles and wrappers in future.”

This work is in collaboration with the Little Leigh Parish Council’s ‘Adopt the Road’ campaign, which was set up to reduce the amount of litter that is dropped in the area.

Over the past three weeks, the school has adopted its own neighbouring park and is also collecting any rubbish they find around the school grounds – with the aim of improving the environment for the people who live in and visit the village.

Mrs Taylor-Wattam, who organises the litter picking sessions, said that this kind of community engagement from the children is a positive step forward, especially with the recent focus on pollution and plastic in the media.

She said: “The children are really getting involved in the new scheme and, by cleaning up a park that they use frequently, it gives them a real sense of ownership and community pride.

“Hopefully, when they’re out there, they can encourage people using the park to stop littering in the first place and use the provided bins.”

After the half-term holiday, posters and signs made by the Little Leigh pupils will be displayed around the village to inform their community about the dangers posed by the amount of rubbish that is dropped in the area.

The school believes that, by having the children display this kind of eco-friendly behaviour, this will make Little Leigh residents both locally and globally aware of the issues caused because of littering.