Recently Class 3 wrote letters to Liz Bonnin and her team, who produced a documentary on BBC called ‘Drowning in Plastic’. After having seen parts of it in class and discussing what they had seen, Class 3 decided to write letters to tell Liz their opinions on what has been happening regarding plastic in the ocean and the dangers to animals, and sent it to the producers offices in London.

Yesterday the school received an email from Tom-Watt Smith (Executive producer) with a fantastic response:

Dear Miss Howell,

This morning, I opened the most wonderful package of letters from your year 3/4 class. I can’t describe how touched we are that your students wrote to us to tell us how you felt about the film.

In the letters,  Alex wrote “when I saw a river covered in plastic I was shocked” and Izzy mentioned “When I heard the baby seal had died I felt so sad”. We felt the same shock and sadness at the scenes we were filming in Indonesia and America. At times it felt helpless seeing “the fish getting poorly from the plastic” (Issac) but we were very keen to share what we saw with as many people as possible. We hoped that the film might make a small difference so when we read your thoughtful and intelligent letters,  it makes it feel like a really worthwhile project.

I agree with Rosie that “it was amazing that a 25 year old Indonesian invented edible packaging” and we also felt happy that “scientists are using a sea wheel to collect plastic from rivers” ( Lilly Mae). The future of life in our Oceans depends on brilliant brains around the world so, William, we are very pleased when you said “I have always wanted to be a scientist so I can help the world”. It is up to all of us to make changes to the way we use and dispose of plastic and think of clever solutions to solve the plastic crisis. The future of life in our Oceans really is in our hands –  and Alfie, we haven’t yet seen the Prime Minister but we will be sure to tell her to “put bins in Indonesia because it is drowning in Plastic”

Thank you for this wonderful and inspiring collection of letters. I have circulated them around our offices in London and they are bringing a smile to the faces of all who read them.

All the best,

Tom

Tom Watt-Smith

Executive Producer (RAW TV)

Recently in Class 3 we have been researching different artists that create art using recycled materials, in line with our current topic ‘Materials that shape the world’. We have found Rodney McCoubrey and David Edgars’ fish made of recycled materials to be very interesting, so have decided to make our own ‘Plastiquarium’ using recycled materials! This week we have painted the bases of our fish, and next week we plan to layer them up with materials! We are really looking forward to it!

If you have any bottle tops, wrappers/ other recycled materials please bring them in for Thursday next week!

Miss Howell

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