MORE than 500 students from Sir James Smith’s School in Camelford took part in the Global Climate Strike on Friday, marching to the town hall to make a declaration to ‘lead the change’.

Joining approximately four-million people across the world in the Global Climate Strike, 550 students made it their mission to make their voices heard. At 12pm, they marched from the school and made their way to the town hall, to make a declaration of action to mayor Claire Hewlett, vowing to ‘lead the change’ against the climate crisis.

Organised by Sir James Smith’s school council, with the help of subject leader for science, Ms Georgie Precious, the event was held in order for the school to formally declare a climate emergency.

Students were keen to march through High Street, but it didn’t take long to learn that closing the main A39 trunk road connecting east and west Cornwall was not going to be possible in the limited time they had to put the event together. Not deterred and keen to do something that would have a visual impact, the students realised that Chapel Street, leading to the iconic Camelford library and the blue plaque bearing Sir James Smith MP’s name, was a fitting spot to make their voices heard.

The message was loud and clear, with the use of 300 pieces of black card, representing the time human activity has been polluting the atmosphere, and then just 30 green pieces of card behind that to represent how long may be left to act to avoid irreversible climate change.

Reaching the town hall and library, students were met by Cllr Hewlett. On behalf of the school council, Year 11 student Keely Christie, who is head girl and chair of the school council, presented her with a declaration of what the school will be doing to become more environmentally responsible and work towards achieving the ‘Green Charter for Cornish Secondary Schools’.

Standing with pride beyond the Sir James Smith’s plaque, Keely spoke with bold confidence, with hopes that the founder of the school would be proud of students ‘taking a stand in order to secure a better and more positive future’ for themselves and for those who will attend the school in the future.

Keely said: “For almost 300 years, we have been destroying the atmosphere with greenhouse gases, and turning much of our natural environment to ruin. We can represent this damage with the black card.

“But after centuries of damage, we now have a very short amount of time to prevent global devastation. The UN has set a deadline of 2030 to make changes to energy, environments and emissions, but some scientists are now saying we could have as little as 16 months to make a difference, just over a year before it could start to become irreversible.

“Our children, and grandchildren, will inherit a world where whole cities and pacific islands have vanished under the ocean, where entire countries have become inhabitable and abandoned, where the United States, the Amazon and most of the European continent has turned to desert and wasteland. Without change, this is something we will live to see.

“This is not something we should be asked to accept. If changes are made, this does not have to be the course of action we go down. We are here today to protest that something must be done, that this cannot, and should not be allowed to happen. We deserve better, our generation deserves better, and so do the generations of the future.”

Telling her peers to hold their banners high, Keely added: “The science is telling us what needs to be done, and we need to hear it, and make others do the same. We do not know exactly what the future holds, but we know that our actions now will decide it. I can only hope that by the time that future comes, we as a species will be able to celebrate our success, not regret our failures.

“But protests are nothing without actions to match. We are spreading awareness today, but the future needs visible change. Our school council have made a declaration, a pledge to do more within our school and community, as a collection of students, and as individuals. We will unite behind the science, we will hold ourselves and our school responsible, and together we will keep fighting to make a difference, and to be heard. And it is with great pleasure that I will, in a moment, hand this declaration to the town mayor, Claire Hewlett, as our promise that we will help lead the change.”

Accepting the declaration from Keely, Cllr Hewlett has since said she is ‘proud’ of Sir James Smith’s students.

As part of the declaration, students aim to ‘collectively declare a climate emergency in September 2019’, and are due to attend the 2019 Cornwall Schools’ Eco-Conference and any subsequent conferences.

As a result, they hope to gain Eco-School Green Flag status by July 2020 and maintain it thereafter, and significantly reduce the use of single-use plastic with the aim of becoming ‘plastic free’. The school hopes to create a garden, pond, orchard, vegetable plot, bee hive and/or farm on site, have a meat-free school menu once a week, and will engage with parents, the community and other schools. They aim to support Cornwall Council’s pledge to be carbon neutral and will explore the possibilities of producing or using bio-diesel to run school vehicles.

In response, Cllr Hewlett told the school: “There is only one earth and it’s our duty to look after it for future generations. Climate change is the challenge of the 21st century. How it’s dealt with, it will define all our futures. We need to protect what’s left and restore what’s been destroyed. We need to keep fossil fuels in the ground. The town council has declared a climate emergency and are putting a plan together. My deputy and myself are determined to make that declaration meaningful.

“Thank you for caring enough to come here this morning. You might not be able to vote but we hear your voices. Now this is the bit you’re not going to want to hear — I need you to go back to school, and continue building the skills you’ll need to change the world for the better for all of our futures.”

Following an address from Cllr Hewlett, students then returned to school and spent the afternoon learning more about climate change and reflecting on the experience of the day.

Sir James Smith’s headteacher, Kristien Carrington, is delighted with the students and their commitment to ensure a better future for themselves and future generation. He said: “All the staff at Sir James Smith’s are incredibly proud of how the pupils conducted themselves — they were a credit to their school and their community.”