Northlands Primary School and its surrounding areas are in pristine condition, thanks to a community clean-up in celebration of Earth Day yesterday.

The staff and pupils at the school, armed with litter grabbers, gloves and trash bags, were able to collect 28 bags of rubbish from the school grounds and nearby streets.

Northlands partnered with environmental charity Keep Bermuda Beautiful as part of the annual clean-up, which ties in with the school’s social and emotional learning curriculum.

La-Keesha Bean, school counsellor at Northlands, said: “We thought it was fitting for the children to be cleaning the school and community in honour of Earth Day.

“It is part of our initiative at the school where we talk about empathy and kindness and doing random acts of kindness.

“It allows our kids to learn how to be responsible, gain life skills, get into nature, and learn about community and protecting the environment.”

Earth Day is an annual event on April 22 aimed at supporting environmental protection.

As part of the school’s initiative to mark the day, the staff and children were split into year groups that cleared the school grounds as well as Berkeley Road, Mount Hill Road and St John’s Road in Pembroke.

Ms Bean said that it was a refreshing change for the children, who were unable to carry out the clean-up last year because of Covid-19.

She added: “With the pandemic we have been inside a lot. Now we can get out and about — they had a fantastic time.

“Some of the children made up a song based on Stevie Wonder’s Happy Birthday where they changed the words to Happy Earth Day. Cars were honking — it was great to see them so happy.”