A WEST Dorset school has been recognised for its commitment to protecting the environment.

Piddle Valley First School has been awarded the Eco-Schools green flag, the highest accolade for schools which promote an ethos of sustainability.

School secretary Claire Warne said the project had been entirely student-led, with a committee of youngsters aged six to nine coming up with and implementing ideas and encouraging others to get involved.

The children built and put in place bug hotels, hedgehog houses and bird boxes to give homes to wild creatures and even came up with innovative ideas to help raise money to buy gardening tools.

Claire said: “One of the projects we did was to make bricks from paper, which we then sold to parents as an alternative to wood for putting on open fires.

“The children also did a sponsored bug hunt. All the money raised went back into en-vironmental projects like buying tools as we grow our own vegetables.”

Other initiatives included a ‘switch off lights’ week with the children from the committee giving an assembly to the school and then making sure throughout the week that lights were turned off when rooms were not in use.

Claire said: “This is something they particularly enjoyed as they were quite enthusiastic when it comes to telling off adults.”

“The project has helped raise awareness of the environment and sustainability and has been taken on enthusiastically by the whole school,” she added.

“They are a lot more aware of the environment, of not wasting power and fuel and the importance of looking to the future to make sure we all have a world we can still live in.

“The whole school, but especially the committee, are very committed to saving the world.”