Local residents of Kirn witnessed a welcoming sight last Friday afternoon (30 May 2014) as an army of school litter pickers took to the streets with one mission – to clean up the town.
Over 100 S1 pupils and staff – equipped with grippers and high visibility jackets supplied by the school’s facilities management providers Mitie – worked tirelessly scooping up and bagging litter from the school’s surrounding neighbourhood.



The aim of the initiative was to not only provide an immediate ‘spruce up’ to the area, but to ensure a lasting legacy – by raise awareness of the issue of litter within the community and to minimise future occurrences of littering from the pupils involved. Smaller ‘teams’ of pupils, from all year groups, will continue to maintain the areas covered by the litter pick on a weekly basis.

David Mitchell, Head Teacher of Dunoon Grammar School stated:
“At Dunoon Grammar School we recognise the positive impact our young people can make to our local community and the role they play in putting our school ‘at the heart’ of the community.
We have however, become increasingly aware of the level of litter within our surrounding area. We plan to address this through a number of initiatives, the first of which is today’s litter pick involving our S1 cohort.”
S1 pupil Sasha Catchpole who participated in the litter pick added:
“Litter not only makes our town look untidy but might also damage the local wildlife too. Hopefully the pupils involved in the litter pick will now think twice about dropping rubbish and decide to use bins instead.”

Councillor Dick Walsh commented:
“It is pleasing to note that our young people at Dunoon Grammar School recognise the importance of protecting and maintaining the local environment in and around our town through this intensive litter clean up. I commend their initiative which as stated is consistent with ensuring that their school is truly at the heart of this local community. At the same time this initiative reinforces for us all the recognition placed by our young people and their understanding of their important collective role that they can play as good and active citizens of this community. Well done and thank you to everyone concerned.”

For further information relating to the S1 Litter Pick please contact:
Paul Gallanagh, Dunoon Grammar School
Tel: 01369 705010
e-mail: paul.gallanagh@argyll-bute.gov.uk