Elizabeth College juniors in endangered species fundraiser

Yesterday around 280 pupils from Elizabeth College Junior School transformed into a menagerie of birds, bees, bats and more for the school’s Endangered Animals Day.

‘It’s a school council event and the idea to support endangered animals came out of science lessons in Year 5,’ said deputy head pastoral Liz Bott.

‘These children approached the school council to ask if it was something we could support.’

She said what was great about the day was that it was child-led and the children also came up with and voted for the idea to support the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust to help a variety of species.

Chairman of the school council Joe James, and vice chairman George Fullman, both 11, said a lot of work went into organising the day.

‘We’re raising money to save endangered animals because they could be gone soon. People need to understand they’re just like us, we’re all the same,’ said Joe – who hoped to see orang-utans supported.

George wanted to help wild dogs.

‘We’re raising money for the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust in Jersey, it was some of Year 6’s idea to help them. We’ve spent a lot of time thinking what to do and how we were going to do it,’ said George.

As part of their donation to Durrell the children will decide on two particular endangered species they would like to support.

Winners of the day’s costume competition – Oliver Pratt, 10, and Sammy Vidamour, 7 – will receive a toy each of the supported animals.

‘The white rhino is critically endangered and I don’t want another species of rhino to go extinct,’ said Oliver about why he chose his rhino costume.

He said the prize was an added bonus. ‘I think winning is quite a big prize on its own, lots of children had costumes.’

Sammy was also pleased to have won but to be a turtle was not his first idea.

‘I was going to do one of my favourite animals, the hedgehog, but my mum thought it wasn’t very endangered so I looked at a poster.

‘There was a turtle, a gorilla or a snow leopard and I decided to be a turtle,’ he said.

After the assembly held by the school council, each Year 3 to Year 6 child was paired with a younger Reception to Year 2 pupil to go endangered animal spotting in the playground.

Chloe De La Mare, 9, and friends were enjoying the hunt: ‘We’ve found a tiger, a hippo and a crested macaque,’ she said.

The children hoped that supporting endangered species would help conserve the natural world.

‘They’ve been here for us and endangered animals should still be here for the next generation,’ said George.