Best Schools - A ten-year-old prep school boy has started his own eco-business to inspire others and generate lasti

Oskar Petersen, from Bromley, was so inspired by his school project – ‘Bickley Park’s Commotion in the Ocean‘ – he knew he wanted to take action against plastic and disposable products to protect sea life.

After a lot of research, Peterson launched his own business – selling toothbrushes made from bamboo. He wanted to raise awareness about the harmful effects of plastic in the ocean while being able to provide much needed alternatives to such simple every day products.

Millions of disposable plastic toothbrushes reach landfill in the UK alone every year, and Peterson understood that a biodegradable version was an easy product for people to change to that would make a significant difference.

Peterson now trades under the company name of OSKeco, and was recently invited to speak at a breakfast briefing at Canary Wharf entitled ‘Breaking The Plastic Habit’.

He has recently extended his product range and now offers stainless steel reusable drinking straws and water bottles alongside bamboo cutlery sets and organic cotton shopping bags, as stainless steel products can be reused and remade timelessly and bamboo is biodegradable.

Mike Buchanan, chief executive of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, responds to the Sutton Trust’s report, Elitist Britain 2019

Independent schools “are not the villain here”, the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference (HMC) has said in response to a new Sutton Trust report.

Mike Buchanan, chief executive of the HMC, said: “Independent schools and the young people educated in them are not the villains here. What’s needed is sufficient funding and the freedom for all state schools to provide a powerfully transforming education and particular focus on the most disadvantaged.”

“Using school type as a simplistic proxy for privilege is flawed,” Buchanan added.

Buchanan said, “access to opportunity is a much deeper societal issue” than independent schooling and the sector was “working collaboratively to address some of the disparities in opportunity”.

HMC, Buchanan said, “have proposed offering 10,000 new places a year, jointly funded by the Government and independent schools”.