On Monday 16th of July, Anna, Jordan and Fatemah visited Southill Primary School in Weymouth. The upcoming Olympic Sailing Event in the area meant that Global Ocean had a perfect opportunity to promote recycling to Year 2, 3 and 4. We were very lucky in that the sailor Steve White was able to attend the workshop and tell the children all about his experiences on the water, and the pollution problems a sailor would face. The children were shocked to hear that the amount of plastic floating in the water was usually an accurate indicator of how close you are to shore!

Since it was so close to the Sailing events for the Olympics the workshop concentrated on using the mountains of collected plastic to create different types of boats – ranging from sailboats to kayaks – promoting recycling and eco-construction methods.

The children had a lot of fun when Fatemah spoke to them:

"Plas-tast-tic" (Plastic Fantastic) – Tia, Year 2

"I liked learning about how the animals can get ill" – Renèe, Year 2

"I liked the workshop because we used plastic, which is like recycling" – Owen, Year 3

"We got to learn about recycling and the ocean and how to use plastic in many ways" – Rebecca, Year 4

And Amy, our Year 6 helper, summed it up well:

"It was a good experience because it wasn't just junk-modelling. We were learning that there was a reason behind the workshop. I think the younger years all enjoyed it"

The workshop also had media coverage from 'View from Weymouth and Portland' and the 'Dorset Echo'.