Wind-up street lamps, colour-coded recycling centres and more bike lanes… just some of the ideas that the children of West Jesmond Primary School have come up with for making Jesmond a better place to live. As part of a week-long Ecofestival that has been organised by the school, JesmondLocal was invited to hear the children explain some of the best suggestions:

A team of staff and parents led by community arts co-ordinator Deborah Hainsworth has organised a series of events for this week’s Ecofestival. Each morning begins at 8.45am with a “recycled dance” for the whole school in the main playground, followed by a timetable of events that so far have included a book recycle, secondhand uniform sale, Fairtrade coffee event and Jesmond Community Orchard “smoothie bicycle” activity, where pedal power is used to run a smoothie maker.

This morning, parents were invited to an assembly in Exhibition Park, to find out what’s happening there, followed by a bike sale and children’s clothes swap. Tomorrow (Wednesday) Jesmond Community Orchard is hosting an after-school family event from 3.15pm-4.15pm, with refreshments donated by Tesco. Thursday sees an Air Ambulance clothes collection, while on Friday, the school has organised an Enterprise Sale from 9-10am and 3.15-4pm: the school children have created items from recycled donations to sell and raise money for Oxfam Water Week.