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Action Against Litter newsletter – Issue 12

Young Environmental Leaders: Turner Contemporary

The council’s Coastal Education team, along with the Thanet Coast Project, Bird Wise East Kent, Creative Isle Community Rail Partnership, and Kent Downs National Landscape, are partners in Turner Contemporary’s Young Environmental Leaders programme. Supported by Artfund, the scheme launched in 2025 and will run throughout 2026.

Each organisation has delivered bespoke environmental learning activities to their partner school, exploring the children’s own interests and ideas. Inspired by what they have learned, the children will now lead the project, developing creative ideas to be displayed in public, later in the year.

The themes addressed by the Coastal Education team were around littering and sea pollution, looking specifically at the local Broadstairs community. Children learnt about some of the wildlife that live around our coastline and how litter can harm them. They looked at what happens to plastic when it enters our seas, and tested how rubbish and pollution can be transported to the beaches, by using a model of Broadstairs High Street with simulated wind and rain. They concluded by creating posters to share their messages on how to protect their local environment, inspired by the particular issues discussed.

A child's comic-strip style poster showing marine life affected by pollution. The panels feature a fish caught in a green net, a sad seal, a seagull with a plastic bag in its beak, and a red crab surrounded by a fast-food box and a plastic ASDA shopping bag. Text on the poster includes '#butiful beaches' and 'Keep Clean Then We'll leave'.

A child's drawing covered in the letters 'SOS' and the phrase 'save our seas'. It features various small illustrations, including a sad, polluted brown Earth, a happy clean Earth, a bird, a turtle with a plastic ring stuck around its neck, and a rubbish bin. Handwritten text includes 'No fish = NO fun' and 'even the small ist hand helps'.

A child's drawing showing a large black bin bag sitting on a sandy beach, filled with discarded plastic bottles and cans. Behind the bag is a row of tall green grass or reeds, and in the top right corner is a large, bright yellow and orange sun. Text in the center reads 'Keep our BEACH ClEAN'.

A child's drawing featuring a stick figure on a yellow beach picking up a black rubbish bag and using a bin. The sky above is filled with blue scribbles, a yellow sun, and flying seagulls. Below the beach is a red and brown area with a row of five colorful, stylized houses. Text at the top reads 'Keep ere beach Clean'.

A child's drawing with the large, blue stylized text 'LEAVE NO RUBBISH' stacked vertically down the center, split by a line of blue water. The bottom shows a beach scene with a palm tree, a parasol, a crab, and a stick figure standing next to a bin labelled 'trash'. Additional text includes 'Viking Bay Yes' with a green tick, and 'Keep the Sea Clean'.

A child's drawing focusing on the danger of plastic rings to marine life. It shows several grey seals with colorful plastic rings or frisbees stuck tightly around their necks. Speech bubbles from the seals say 'we dont like this!', 'It hurts', and 'oww!'. Floating rubbish surrounds them, and text reads 'Save Our Seals', 'Save the seals from frisbees!', and '#Pegwell seals'.

A child's drawing featuring two versions of the Earth: a sad, brown, polluted planet at the top, and a happy, bright blue and green planet surrounded by red hearts at the bottom. The page is filled with handwritten messages like 'Save Our Seas', 'Cool kids dont litter', 'No fish No fun', and 'litter pick is So importent'.

A child's drawing split into two halves comparing a dirty and clean beach. The left side shows a polluted, yellow beach with brown sludge pouring from a pipe, a sad sun, and rubbish in the water, with the text 'Save Our Seas!'. The right side shows a clean beach with clear blue water, colorful fish, and a stick figure putting rubbish in a bin, with the text '#Beutiful Broadstairs'.

A child's drawing with the handwritten text 'PACK IT IN, PACK IT OUT' at the top. The center features the large words 'DO NOT LITTER' created using colorful, blocky letters that incorporate scenery, such as the 'T' doubling as a sunset over the horizon and the 'L' drawn as a palm tree. In the bottom right corner is a drawing of a bin with the words 'USE ME'.

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