An Ottery school will join thousands of others around Britain and across the globe to celebrate WWF’s ‘Earth Hour’ and switch off the lights in solidarity.

The Kings School is one of 3,500 in the UK taking part on Saturday, March 23, at 8.30pm to show its commitment to tackling climate change and protecting the natural world.

The Ottery academy’s Green Team will be holding a miniature version of the event the day before, with pupils and staff stopping what they are doing and turning off the lights for 15 minutes.

A spokesman for the school said during the blackout classes will talk about some of the issues which face the planet and how to tackle them.

The 2012 Earth Hour spanned a record 152 countries, with hundreds of millions of people turning off their lights at the same time.

Cherry Duggan, WWF-UK’s Head of Schools and Youth said the idea behind the event is to get people to focus on the kind of energy we all use.

For more information see www.wwf.org.uk/earthhour.