A headteacher in Dorchester is calling upon government officials to “practice what they preach” when it comes to protecting the environment.

Gary Spracklen, headteacher at The Prince of Wales School in Dorchester, is calling upon the Education Secretary Damian Hinds to eliminate the use of single use plastics from SATs examinations.

In December last year, Mr Hinds urged all schools to eliminate their use of single use plastics by 2022.

Mr Spracklen said: “Mr Hinds called on senior leaders like myself to stop using items such as plastic bags, straws, bottles and food packaging in favour of sustainable alternatives, and invited us to start a conversation with pupils about the effects discarded plastics have on the environment and wildlife.

“At the time this was encouraging to hear, but it’s disappointing to see yet again the Department for Education making use of single use plastics to distribute and collect this year’s SAT papers.

“This year I have received boxes full of papers for the Phonics Screening Check and KS1 SATs. All papers are contained in single use plastic bags. All of them.

“When children finish a KS2 examination, the papers are placed into single use plastic bags with strips of plastic to be removed from the adhesive strip used to seal the bag. Due to rules, any papers from children who have timetable variations in the same school have to be placed in a separate single use plastic bag. These bags are then all placed into another larger single use plastic bag which is then sent to the testing company for marking.

“If we take that there are over 20,000 infant, junior and primary schools and they have to have a minimum of one pack of papers for each test. We are looking at a conservative estimate of 900,000 single use plastic bags being used for these statutory tests.

“I just do not understand why the Department for Education cannot practice what they preach.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “The Education Secretary has urged all schools to eliminate their use of single-use plastics by 2022, as we know the harm that plastic can do to the environment.

“The packing used for SATs tests is recyclable. It protects the test papers in transit and prevents the tests being tampered with once completed. However, we do regularly review the availability of non-plastic alternatives.”

The Prince of Wales School has been trying to reduce the amount of plastic it uses as part of its commitment to the Plastic Free Dorchester campaign.

In April, the school announced it would be offering a more eco-friendly school uniform that was made in part from recycled plastic bottles.