A Merthyr Tydfil primary school has a very famous face hanging up in its school hall after winning ASH Wales’ Smokefree Schoolgates competition.
St Aloysius Primary School won a portrait created by artist Nathan Wyburn of environmental campaigner Sir David Attenborough made from cigarette butts collected on Welsh beaches after tweeting a photograph of its Smokefree Schoolgates banner. It was among 140 schools across Wales to join the Smokefree Schoolgates campaign, which is aimed at preventing people from lighting up outside schools to protect the environment and de-normalise smoking in the eyes of children.
The campaign supports the launch of recent Welsh Government legislation which bans smoking inside school grounds.
Artist Nathan Wyburn with the portrait
Year two teacher Hayley Jones told us why the school was keen to support the campaign by putting up a Smokefree Schoolgates banner: “As a school we are big on teaching the children about wellbeing and the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle.
“Our school is very close to a park where people smoke and often drop cigarette litter right outside the gates. This new banner will send a message to the wider community that we don’t want this litter and we don’t want our children to see this behaviour outside the school.”
To support the campaign the school is keen to teach its pupils about the impact of smoking on people’s health and used No Smoking Day as an opportunity to get the message across.
Hayley explained why she thinks children are never too young to start learning about the effects of smoking:
“It’s also about changing children’s perceptions of smoking. Some children’s parents smoke at home so for them it’s the norm. On No Smoking Day we spent time teaching the children about the effect of smoking on the body and they were really shocked. It really sparked something in them and there were conversations about how they would go home and tell their parents to stop smoking because they didn’t want them to become unwell.
“We feel smoking is often overlooked in lessons about wellbeing for children at primary school. But it’s really important to teach them about it early so that when they move on to secondary school, they are less likely to be influenced by peer pressure to try smoking.”
The portrait of Sir David Attenborough, which is made up of cigarette butts collected on Welsh beaches by Keep Wales Tidy, will now take up pride of place in the school hall, providing a great talking point for when the children gather for assemblies again.
ASH Wales is continuing to campaign for measures to address youth smoking prevalence in Wales. Currently 8% of 15-16-year-olds in Wales smoke weekly and an estimated 6,000 children take up the habit every year. According to ASH Wales’ latest YouGov survey 81% of current adult smokers took up the habit aged 18 or under.
