03/29/2024

Wales News Online

Local & National News for Wales

A reading session with a difference to mark World Book Day

Thousands of pupils marked World Book Day by participating in a joint education session between Welsh Water and Keep Wales Tidy.

As children up and down the country were getting into the spirit of the day by dressing up as some of their favourite literary characters, Welsh Water teamed up with Keep Wales Tidy to deliver a live, virtual reading session for Primary School pupils across Wales. This session builds on a collaborative project launched last year with Upper Rhymney Primary School and Caerphilly Cares to create a fictional children’s book, about the harmful effect putting inappropriate items down the toilet can have on homes and the local environment.

Many people don’t realise the damage that can be caused by putting things like wet wipes, cotton buds and nappies down the toilet. Once they are flushed, they can get stuck in the sewer pipes and cause blockages which can then make the sewer overflow. This can be harmful for the local environment if the sewer overflows onto land or into rivers – or worse still for customers if the sewer overflows inside a home.

During this session, pupils enjoyed a live narration of the book, titled ‘Sewer of Secrets’, which centres around the curious tale of Pirate Tim, who mysteriously ends up sailing through the sewers. On his voyage he meets mummies, astronauts and sharks – but who will help him get back to the Seven Seas? The story wonderfully captures the 3Ps rule – only Pee, Poo and Paper down the loo – and is accompanied in the session by comprehension challenges, quizzes and interactive activities.

Theia as one of the Twitches from Teacup House

Welsh Water and Keep Wales Tidy have a longstanding reputation for delivering high quality, practical education provision for schools. One of the last collaborative initiatives, which focused on Climate Change, attracted over 9,000 pupils from over 350 classrooms. A further 2,500 pupils participated in the latest session.

Welsh Water have worked with almost 600,000 pupils through its’ education strategy. This event is one of many activities routinely carried out by the company, who are committed to educate, inform and inspire younger generations about the value of water; doing so through its’ industry-unique approach of annually seconding teachers to deliver its education programme.

Tim Wort, Education Manager at Keep Wales Tidy said: “We were delighted to partner with Welsh Water for this interactive and exciting event. The sign up is brilliant, showing a real appetite from schools and pupils to learn about the many ways they can take action and make a real difference. Through our Eco-Schools programme, pupils are able to take community action and make a real positive impact.”

Claire Roberts, Welsh Water’s Head of Community Engagement said: “We often collaborate to deliver joint education sessions, and foster wider social benefits for communities. We’re delighted to work with Keep Wales Tidy on this project and it is such a pleasure to see how engaged and committed the children are during these sessions. It also helps us ensure that our customers of the future understand how they can help play their part in keeping our essential services going which also helps protect our environment.”

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