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A new Guinness World Record was secured at a Bradford-on-Avon primary school recently when pupils helped local business, Cotton Bag Co, to bag the record for the World’s Largest Jute Bag on International Plastic Bag Free Day.

Pupils from Fitzmaurice School helped teams from Cotton Bag Co and digital marketing agency, Varn, to decorate the bag which measured at 22.5m wide by 14.6m high. This was 11.6m longer and 6.1m wider than the previous record.

Tracey Dunn, the headteacher at Fitzmaurice, said, “We were delighted to be asked to help with achieving this world record. It has enriched our curriculum and provided the children with a memory they will never forget. The children were so excited to see the bag being lifted – I think we were all blown away with the size of it.”

Cotton Bag Co managing director, Jon Marling, added, “We make every effort to figure out how we can support sustainable solutions using environmentally friendly materials that are easy to reuse and recycle such as jute, cotton or paper. It has been a really fun project and we are proud to have accomplished it with help from Varn and the school children at the Fitzmaurice primary school.”

The massive hessian-style bag was lifted by a crane to ensure that it could be displayed for the children and visitors to see. Over the coming weeks, the bag will be cut up into smaller squares and given to the children so that they can make their own smaller bag or pencil case from the material.

www.fitzmauriceschool.info