Vauvert pupils take action at plight of world’s orang-utans

AN ORANG-UTAN DAY held by pupils of Vauvert School raised almost £500 to help apes affected by palm oil production.

Vauvert School’s Orang-utan Day saw pupils extend their Precious Planet topic with Years 3 and 4 pupils organising stalls which raised £470, enough for each year group to adopt an orang-utan for the rest of their time at the school. Pictured, left to right, front row, are Keira Lewis, 8, Cynthia Leggett, 9, Phoebe Collas, 9, and Lewis Mahy, 7. Behind them are Seb Maunder, 9, and Evie Snook, 8.(Picture by Adrian Miller, 24210435)

Children in Years 3 and 4 organised a number of stalls and raised £470.

Year 4 teacher Katie Cox said it was an amazing amount.

‘We’re astounded by them,’ she said.

The children have been learning about the effects of palm oil production on tropical forests and the animals that live there, including orang-utans, through their Precious Planet topic.

‘They watched the Greenpeace/Iceland advert that came out and at the end it says 25 orang-utans are killed every day,’ Mrs Cox said.

‘The children were shocked.’

George Dyer, 8, manning the cake sale stand. Cakes have been decorated as orang-utans (Picture by Charlotte Le Marquand, 24213886)

The school also invited Debbie Sarre, who has done volunteer work with orang-utans in Borneo, to speak to the children.

Year 3 teacher Karlie Bichard said what she was surprised to learn was that orang-utans are not born with the knowledge of how to climb trees – it is something they learn from their mothers, so if killed the young orphans do not learn how to fend for themselves.

As well as Mrs Cox and Mrs Bichard, Year 3 teachers Danielle Neville and Becky Mackay, Year 4 teacher Mia O’Hara and learning support assistants Carol Wray and Sarah Palmer worked with the children to put on the day.

Mrs Cox said it was the children who had asked to adopt an orang-utan.

‘The children got really passionate about it, they’ve been leading the learning,’ she said.

Stalls included a flossing competition, pin the orang-utan baby to its mother and feed the orang-utan.

Mrs Bichard said that to help with financial literacy, the children had all been given the budget of £1 to create and advertise their stalls.

Phoebe Collas and Cynthia Leggett, both 9, had organised a game involving hoops.

‘It’s important to help because 25 of them die every day and it’s not fair, if we were treated like that we wouldn’t find it fair,’ she said.

Phoebe said she had liked the talk from Ms Sarre.

‘When I’m older I’d like to go to Borneo and help the orang-utans,’ she said.

‘We were only allowed to spend a pound and we used our PE equipment,’ said Phoebe.

Each piece of PE equipment was 2p to use, with Blu Tack costing 5p per blob plus costs to print posters.

Cynthia said they also had to decide what prizes to use.

‘We started off choosing which game we wanted and then decided on sweets for a prize.’

Playing Splat the Rat are Sam Cox, 5, left and Daniel Krontals 8. (Picture by Adrian Miller, 24210433)

The children have also written to companies such as Ferrero, the maker of Nutella, to ask it about why it uses palm oil and received a response about the company sustainably sourcing the oil.

Mrs Bichard said it was not just the children who were passionate about helping the cause.

‘For those of us who have young children, seeing these young orphan orang-utans is so sad, they’re only young children,’ she said.

The children will be adopting an orang-utan based at Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre in Borneo.

The reserve holds 60 to 80 orang-utans, which roam free. The centre also cares for orphan apes.

Mrs Cox said the large sum raised means they can sponsor two orang-utans, one for Year 3 and one for Year 4, for their entire Vauvert School journey.