Primary schools are taking a stand against wearing single-use plastic red noses as part of Comic Relief’s fundraiser.

Instead, Dhoon and Laxey primary schools have asked students to dress in the colour or paint their noses red while raising money on Red Nose Day today (Friday).

In a letter to parents and guardians, the Year 3 students (ages seven to eight) from Laxey School collectively wrote a statement explaining why they were not going to wear the accessory.

'This is because as you know Laxey School has been trying to reduce single-use plastic so we can save the sea and land,' it read.

'We have shown how compassionate we are to our environment. This is a true fact, in 30 years’ time there will be more plastic than animals in the ocean unless we do something!’

In November, Laxey School organised a community beach clean with Beach Buddies founder Bill Dale and Laxey now has a Beach Buddies bin.

Pupils have also been behind a refill initiative in the village, placing stickers on shop windows to tell the public where they can fill their water bottles.

Trish Dudley, Laxey’s head of school, said: ’We don’t want our children to use single-use plastic. It’s an environmental disaster and we’re not prepared to be a part of that, but we want to be supporting Comic Relief. The children will either have their noses painted red or make one out of recyclables.’

Rebecca Walker and Bronwyn Ward are the teachers behind the movement to help the children understand the problem with single-use plastics and to take action.

The Laxey and Dhoon Federation is holding its second ’Bright Futures Conference’ on April 26, which focuses on environmental challenges facing the island and the world today.

Mrs Ward said her Year 6 students (ages 10 and 11) had wanted to invite a lot of speakers to the school.

'It became apparent that working with Anthony Cross at Dhoon to gather experts and provide quality workshops as part of a transition event would be hugely beneficial to the students,' she said.

'The students absolutely loved the conference and gained so much knowledge from those who spoke or lead workshops. The conference started a culture of caring for our environment within our schools that has led to exciting social actions by the students.

'We now want to extend that opportunity to other schools in the north so that all the schools can work together, supporting a generation who really do want to make a positive difference.'

The conference will take place in the Legislative Buildings and will see pupils debating with input from MHKs and MLCs.

Garff MHK Martyn Perkins is sponsoring the day.