MORE than 200 primary school children visited Duchy College Stoke Climsland's annual Countryside Day recently, to learn about the environment and to take part in a varied range of activities.

The event was organised by second year students studying the foundation degree in rural environmental management, awarded by Plymouth University. For this year's Countryside Day they chose the theme 'Reduce, Re-use, Recycle'.

The aim was to give the pupils a better understanding of some environmental challenges and how they can help by reusing and recycling at home.

The college campus was divided into 14 zones, and activities were set up by students at Duchy College studying a variety of courses and external agencies that had been invited. Help with the onsite activities came from the equine department, countryside students and the animal care department.

Guest organisations included the Westcountry Rivers Trust, Southwest Lakes Trust and FACE (Farming and Countryside Education) who all ran their own activities.

The children met Duchy College's resident barn owl Lucy and the new addition to the college, 'Duchess' the Eagle Owl, who was rescued two months ago.

Local businesses sponsored the event, donating food, snacks and resources for the volunteers. Ginsters donated pasties for the volunteers' lunch and Sainsbury's donated cardboard for the activities.

Student organiser Richard Heath said: 'We believe the children had an interesting, different and exciting day out away from the classroom. In a fun and informative way we hope they learnt a little towards appreciating some of the complex and challenging facets of contemporary life facing us all.'

Programme manager Jurie Intachat said: 'I want to thank the sponsors for kindly donating food and resources for the day. It was a fantastic day with great weather, and all the students worked really hard to make the day a success.'

Head of Duchy College Andrew Counsell said: 'Countryside Day is a great opportunity for our students to work together to organise and run a logistically complex event, while providing an inspirational and educational day out for local primary school children.'