It’s a real-life school of rock.

Youngsters at Paddock Junior, Infant and Nursery School found an unusual way to spread the message about caring for the environment.

On the eve of World Environment Day which was yesterday they put important messages about issues including recycling and composting on rocks which they then “hid” in the local community for people to find.

All 350 children were involved in the project, with the youngest Year 1 pupils placing their rocks in locations near the school at Heaton Road and the oldest Year 6 pupils putting theirs in Greenhead Park.

Pupils and acting deputy head Gemma Shaw, of Paddock JI&N School, get ready to hide their painted rocks with environment day messages.

They hope people finding the stones will take note of the messages and either keep the stones or “re-hide” them at locations further away for others to find. If they find one of the rocks, they can use #paddockrock to share their discovery and environmental message on Twitter or Facebook.

Acting deputy head Gemma Shaw said: “The children are learning about recycling and how we can make the sure the environment lasts for future generations. To share the important messages that they are learning, we produced some rocks containing our messages to place around the area for people to find, share and re-hide.

“The messages include ideas such as re-using jam jars and vases, what things can be composted in the garden and remembering to put plastics in the green bin.”