An island high school has revealed that it generates £20,000 a year in revenue just from selling water in plastic bottles.

The situation at Ramsey Grammar School was highlighted during a campaign to cut single-use plastic.

RGS’s school council is to present a petition to Chief Minister Howard Quayle on Friday (May 3) to ask for financial support to compensate the school if it stops selling bottled water - and loses about £20,000 in the process.

Pupils say they want to do the ’right thing’ by contributing less to the plastic waste problem.

Headteacher Annette Baker told the Examiner that the school sells about 2,000 bottles of water every week.

The bigger bottles are sold at 65p each at the school, which has about 860 students.

The revenue generated from the sales almost matches the wage of a newly-qualified teacher. In 2016, new secondary school teachers started on a minimum of £22,467.

Ramsey Grammar School is unlikely to be the only Manx school facing such an issue.

The head girl of Ramsey Grammar School, Caitlin Allinson, said: ’It is vital for all our futures that we do something to prevent the environmental catastrophe that faces us all. Through this petition we hope to make government more aware of the urgency of the situation and of the need to act now.’

Mrs Baker said: ’People like Greta Thunberg [the Swedish teenager who inspired pupils’ strikes] and Sir David Attenborough have brought environmental issues to the forefront of all our consciences, and I am extremely proud of the way the students of our school have responded.’

Conister Bank is now working with the school and will provide all students and teachers with about 1,200 plastic reusable flasks.

This will be established as a part of the ’school uniform’ and ’way of being’ of the students in the school, the school has stated.

Conister Bank has also pledged to work with businesses to encourage them to support the school by helping source the water fountains around the school, which would be needed to make the initiative sustainable.

Mrs Baker added: ’With the support of government and organisations like Conister Bank we have a real chance of tackling this issue successfully, giving us all hope that together we can create a sustainable future for the world and for all who live in it.

She believes there is a ’real opportunity’ to make the island’s schools stand out by stopping single-use plastic water bottles from being sold in canteens.

’With the island’s Unesco biosphere status and initiatives against plastic here it could really be an attractive place for people to move and work,’ she told the Examiner.

’We’re really grateful that the Chief Minister has agreed to meet the students and we’re delighted to see him supporting this. There’s a will to listen to what our young people are saying.’