Pupils at a school in Broadway discovered a 31-year-old can on a litter pick.

On Thursday, November 11, pupils at St Mary’s RC Primary School were out tackling litter in Broadway as part of the Little Litter Warriors workshops funded by Wychavon District Council.

Keep Britain Tidy ambassador Karen Blanchfield led three sessions throughout the day, during which the children came across a range of ‘treasures’.

Ms Blanchfield said: “The pupils have done a great job keeping their school grounds litter free, however the litter workshop challenges the pupils to hunt out the litter that they can’t always see and when you give children a challenge, they always deliver with some unusual litter finds.

“The pupils’ funny finds were a pair of shoes, a BT internet box with cables, a safe which was to their disappointment empty and an old drink can with a sell by date of 1990, 31 years old.”

She added: “The pupils made their teachers, parents and community extremely proud of their litter picking achievements collecting in total 6 bags of litter.”

Evesham Journal: Some of the older children went into Broadway to clean up litterSome of the older children went into Broadway to clean up litter

Ms Blanchfield came up with the idea for Little Litter Warriors during the first lockdown, when she realised just how hard teachers were working to support the area’s youth.

The project launched in March of this year and is fully funded by the council.

Earlier this month, Ms Blanchfield visited Bretforton School and her next trip will see her go to Holy Redeemer RC Primary on Thursday, November 18.

Assistant head at St Mary’s, Matt Pettle, said the litter pick not only benefited the community, but was also an important lesson in religion for the children.

He said: “As a Catholic school, and part of the Our Lady of the Magnificat Multi-Academy Company, our pupils see the planet around us as a gift and take their responsibility as stewards of God’s Earth very seriously.

“We were delighted to be a part of the campaign to give something back to our local community, and the pupils thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to spread this message around the village.

“Karen’s hard work on the day has sparked a whole new approach to environmental care within our school, and I’m reliably informed that a number of pupils have now added litter pickers to their Christmas lists.”