I joined an enthusiastic and engaging group of students from Nova Hreod yesterday to discuss the important 100 million campaign which calls for a world where all young people are free, safe and educated.

The visit was part of the Back to School initiative where students prepared and delivered a brilliantly informed presentation on the importance of global education and the global challenges facing every country which wants this as a top priority.

As someone who chaired the All Party Parliamentary Group for Global Education and has hosted the Global Partnership for Education in Parliament a number of times, the students certainly had a very receptive audience!

We have therefore decided to make joint representations to Ministers at the Department for International Development ahead of the Global Education conference on this very issue, ensuring that their voices are heard at the very top levels of Government.

I also had a good catch up with the staff at Nova Hreod who continue to share their passion for learning to drive up standards; something that they have done as demonstrated in their increasingly improved results and reports.

This week the Prime Minister pledged to eradicate all avoidable plastic waste in the UK by 2042, as part of our 25-year plan to improve the natural environment.

In the UK alone the amount of single-use plastic wasted every year would fill 1,000 Royal Albert Halls. That is absolutely shocking and we all need to take urgent action.

As members of society, as global nations and as inhabitants of this planet, it is down to us to look after our precious environment.

We have made a positive start. Our 5p bag charge introduced in October 2015 has led to a staggering nine billion fewer plastic bags being used.

Our ban on microbeads, the tiny pieces of plastics used in cosmetics and personal care products, came into effect this week marking a landmark step with one of the world’s toughest bans on these harmful plastic.

But this is only the start and we need to get supermarkets, food manufacturers, coffee chains and various other contributors involved in the global challenge to eradicate plastic pollution.

We have confirmed the extension of the 5p charge for plastic carrier bags to all retailers in England.

We have pledged a commitment to help developing nations tackle pollution and reduce plastic waste, including through UK aid, and we will invest funding into plastic innovation so that alternatives can be found. This is vital as all too often we the consumers are left with little, or no choice when it comes to single use plastics, packaging and coffee cups for example. If we can deliver alternatives this would make a huge difference and I am pleased to see that Swindon could be at the heart of this, with innovative companies like Recycling Technologies leading the way in this field.

Many like me will have been captivated by the Blue Planet 2 series which provided us all with a huge wake-up call to the urgency and importance of doing all that we can to protect our oceans and marine life.

We all need to listen to David Attenborough and we all need to step up to the challenge.