Children from a Carlisle primary school have been inspired to clean up the community.

Year four pupils from Petteril Bank Community School planned and organised a litter pick after watching a clip of the news in class.

Sophie Heron, year four teacher, has been helping the children while they put together their plans. She said: “The children planned everything including organising the equipment and deciding on the route.

“They walked round the estate for about an hour cleaning up the streets and the park.”

In total they collected four full bags of litter.

Ms Heron added: “They were disgusted by how much rubbish there was on the estate.”

The pupils have since put together a report and produced a presentation to show the rest of the school about why it’s so important to pick up litter and what damage it has on the environment.

“I just hope for the children’s sake they are able to take the message home and spread the word about how important it is to keep our environment clean,” Ms Heron continued. The children are said to be very passionate about cleaning up the streets and four of them even went out after school to continue their eco mission.

Millie Scott, eight, said: “We saw how bad the environment was for animals so we got some gloves and we decided to go out litter picking.

“We were disgusted by it all, I don’t know why people are being so lazy and just dropping litter on the floor.”

Owen McCabe, eight, said: “It was really emotional watching the news and all the litter is hurting innocent animals... we need to stop dropping litter.”

Faith Hoskins, nine, said: “It has been fun, and it’s important to tell everyone how bad littering is for the environment. I felt happy we were cleaning up, but upset.”

Abbie McCleary, eight, said: “We were inspired by news and it’s important we do this or animals could become extinct.”