Bedales Pre-prep celebrates World Ocean Day

Children at Bedales Pre-prep, Dunannie celebrated World Ocean Day on 8 June, uniting with people from over 140 countries across the globe to celebrate and take action to protect the world’s blue planet.

To mark the occasion, children spent the week prior to World Ocean Day collecting clear plastic waste, which they brought to school on the day itself and used it to create a polar bear on the playground. The finished installation – which is particularly symbolic, as this year Dunannie’s Eco Committee are sponsoring a polar bear as part of their annual commitment to support an endangered species – was shared with parents at a fête on 23 June.

Year 2 teacher Camilla Bell led a special assembly on this year’s theme, ‘Collective Action for the Ocean’. Camilla explained that people round the world need to work together to restore the vibrancy of the ocean and bring it new life. Learning about how various plastics end up in oceans, the damage they cause and what is being done to address the issue, children considered alternative ways to package strawberries, with lots of fantastic suggestions – including taking a reusable plastic container to the supermarket.

Back in the classroom, children in Reception continued learning about oceans, things that live beneath the water and things that float throughout the week, making their own boats and sea creatures, and pond dipping to investigate the creatures that live in water.

Head of Dunannie Fiona Read said: “It was wonderful to celebrate World Ocean Day and think about the world we live in and what we can do to protect it. Dunannie’s celebrations represented a significant week for environmental awareness and I was delighted to see the children considering ways to save the planet and upcycling the plastic waste they had collected in ingenious ways.”

Bedales Pre-prep, Dunannie | World Ocean Day | Fiona Read | Camilla Bell