A while ago, we started a battery box at the kids' primary school (now their ex-school, sadly). The council had no battery recycling at the time. The idea was that a parent would take them to the nearest recycling point (in Barnet) when the box was full. The kids got quite motivated, writing to the council. the queen, parents, tony blair and others about it. I just had this update (the dots indicate bowdlerisation). I love the idea of sending the crisp bags back to Walker's

B-))

Hi Billy,

How is it going?
Guess what, not only the battery box ... is still going, the children are still involved in the aftermath. The kids are now in Year 6, and last month, as a result of a letter they wrote to the Environmental Minister, they were invited to meet Ben Bradshaw and ask him some questions. The Minister was a bit of a disappointment for the children - one of them said to me "How come he is the Environmental Minister and we children know more about batteries than he does?", but I assume in time they might realize that this was their first taster of what government is sadly often all about

The positive side - ... the teacher who accompanied the children on
the trip and who taught them in Year 5, was telling me how this whole class as a result of the battery project has turned out to be very environmentally aware, not just the kids from potentially "green backgrounds", but all of them, also the ones you wouldn't expect to be.

Also - as a result of the trip some of the kids had a new idea - they are collecting Walkers crisps bags, which apparently are not recyclable, and want to send them back to the company.

And I unintentionally came home with some new ideas and inspiration. In the current Year 4 I am going to run a plastic bag project, and ...

... building upon our original idea for the battery project to expand we want to try to run the battery project at other primary schools. Some of my friend have long been interested for their kids' schools. So my friend Judith and I, whose kids are at ..., want to hopefully run it at ...her... Primary School in a few weeks (Judith has started negotiating with the Head there), and hopefully later on through another friend we might be able to run it at ...another school... in Islington.

I have written a summary of the battery project ... to have something on paper for the ... Head to start out with. ... Any ideas warmly welcome, please feel free to criticise and improve!

Thanks a lot, and all the best
Cathrin