The pupils and staff at Salisbury Primary school in Manor Park have been marking Clean Air Day with a campaigning march and demonstration to urge parents and other residents to ditch the car and switch to sustainable transport like walking, scooting and cycling.
The school has appointed pupils to be Air Quality Ambassadors to work with the GLA and Newham Council to secure funding for a new “greening project” which will aim to improve the air quality around the school.
The children, who have lobbied parents and governors to change their travel behaviours, have also produced posters which they display outside school at drop-off and pick-up times during the school run. The main aim is to “pester” parents to abandon the car for journeys to and from school, but where that is not an option, they are encouraging drivers to avoid “idling” the car engine while waiting outside the school.
As part of their Clean Air Day events the pupils invited Newham councillors and officers from the Air Quality team to visit the school, and see the work they have been doing.
Newham’s newly appointed Air Quality Commissioner, Cllr Mas Patel said: “With seven in every 100 deaths in Newham linked to poor air quality this young generation of school children are being put at risk by the behaviour of adults. I am so impressed by the work these young children have been doing – and the great news is that it is working. We need our young people to get together to call out the polluting behaviour of adults so that we can all start addressing the climate emergency we now face.”