Children plan to protest this week to raise awareness of littering after discovering the amount of rubbish outside their school gates.

Year 4 pupils from Windmill Primary School in Oxford will walk around Headington for the protest holding posters at 10am on Thursday.

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It comes after they did an investigation to find out what kind of litter was in Headington.

From just walking from the school to Rock Edge, they saw 10 disposable masks and 11 plastic water bottles.

Oxford Mail: One of the disposable masks found by pupilsOne of the disposable masks found by pupils

In a joint statement from the year group, they said: “We have been learning since September about people who fight for their beliefs. We have learnt about Boudicca, The Suffragettes and the soldiers of WW1.

"We have decided that we should also fight for our beliefs and we believe that people should be using reusable things such as reusable water bottles, reusable coffee cups and reusable masks.

“We have been researching what litter can do to the local wildlife and we want as many people as possible to know about how much litter we found and how easily it can be reduced if people could reuse.”

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Their teacher, Emily Williams, said: “The children were shocked to see so much litter in Headington, especially when so much of it could have been avoided if people reused more. 

“When we saw photos and stories of how litter can hurt local wildlife they were very upset and wanted to do something about it. We have been learning about different people in history who stand up for their beliefs and how just one person can make a big change.

"We hope that the people in Headington will listen to our message and think about switching to something reusable.”

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