PUPILS from specialist autism schools, Summergil House at Presteigne and Ty Bronllys at Brecon, have been rolling up their sleeves and helping with litter picking at the Pwll y Wrach nature reserve.

As part of the pupils’ Eco School project, children from the schools have been working with volunteers at Brecknock Wildlife Trust to clear moss and generally clean up the nature reserve, which is popular with walkers and families alike.

Head of Education at Summergil House, Rachel Hackling, said: “We got in touch with the team at Brecknock Wildlife Trust earlier this year to see if we could work around the Trust area to help us achieve our bronze and silver eco school status, where we help the wider community with environmental issues.

“It is very important that our children get to experience what it is like to work in the real world, as many of them have challenging behaviour and learning difficulties and so we jumped at the chance for them to learn new skills on the job.”

Rachel added: “The conservation officers agreed that we could help and we got cracking straight away. It has been great for the children and they have already received compliments on how much nicer the area around Pwll y Wrach is since we started working there.

“Working in real life situations really helps the children to interact with the outside world and you can see them brim with confidence as they are given compliments on their work. It is great to see.”

Stephanie Coates, conservation officer at Brecknock Wildlife Trust, said: “We have worked closely with Rachel at Summergil House to find an activity which would be suitable for the children and it was great to see them all mucking in and cleaning up a very popular area.

“As an organisation we are resource poor, so it was great when Rachel approached us to help. The children have been cleaning interpretation panels as well as picking up litter and generally clearing up. Pwll y Wrach is a popular area – but with more people comes more litter and so having Ty Bronllys and Summergil House along to help us has been great.”

As well as maintaining the good work they have already carried out at Pwll y Wrach, the children will be moving on to help screw in Waymarker discs on trails in the coming weeks.

Orbis Education and Care offers specialist schools and residential services for children and young people from ages eight to 19 with complex needs associated with autism.