Youngsters from North Frodingham Primary School have chosen RSPB Bempton Cliffs as their Charity of the Year.
The 13 pupils, all aged between three and five years old, in the Foundation Stage Unit decided to support the East Yorkshire Coast’s popular nature reserve after seeing news coverage of a gannet rescue on the cliff face.
Teacher, Tracey Stainton, said the whole class was really concerned about the plight of the seabird which was tangled in fishing wire and dangling from a ledge on the 400 feet high cliffs:
‘The photos made a really big impression on them and they wanted to help in their own small way. From a teaching perspective, choosing the RSPB was a good move as it also ties in with the study of endangered species which we’ll be doing in the spring. This has become even more pertinent with the recent announcement that puffins have been added to the IUCN’s ((International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List of Threatened Species.’
The children have already started their fund raising activities and their efforts to date have raised £14.20. A cheque for this amount was presented to Sarah Aitken, Bempton Cliffs’ Visitor Experience Officer, when she joined the class for a singing and storytelling session. She was assisted by puppets, Peter Puffin and Gary Gannet and related the tale of The Lonely Puffin before handing out stickers and pin badges to everyone.
Sarah said:
‘It’s wonderful that such young children have taken an interest in helping give nature a home. They are the next generation of conservationists and who knows, one day they could be working on the reserve that their donation is helping to protect. We’d like to say a massive thank you to the entire class and we’d love to show them around the nature reserve next Spring.
North Frodingham Primary School