VIDEO: Mansfield nursery children show off their sign language skills during a special performance

Lake View Primary and Nursery School, Rainworth, invited parents to watch the children sing 'A Million Dreams' from the greatest showman while also signing the lyrics using Makaton.

Makaton is a language programme that uses signs and symbols to help children and adults communicate non verbally, and has been featured on CBeebies Bedtime Story.

The performance was part of the lessons the three and four years olds have been learning all about the damaging effects of plastic in the sea.

Danielle Roberts, nursery teacher said: "The children are dreaming of a better world that is rubbish free and learned this song to help increase awareness of this problem."

"The Foundation Team and the rest of the school are extremely proud of our F1 children and their incredible achievements. For children so young to learn to sign and sing to a whole song in front of a big audience is amazing and we are overwhelmed by how well they did.

"We have not been learning Makaton for very long, we started in January learning a new sign every week and the days of the week song but the children have picked it up really well and love using it to communicate with the adults and their friends. For this song the children have only been learning and practising for two and a half weeks.

"Makaton uses signs and symbols to help children and adults communicate non verbally.

"This can be extremely useful for all children as it can help develop their communication skills, support those who have speech and language problems and encourage those children who's English is not their first language.

"It provides a simple yet effective way of communicating, and our F1 class have been learning Makaton to develop and improve these key skills.

"Through our topic 'Dive into the ocean' the children had seen an image online of the devastating effects of plastic on the creatures of the ocean.

"They were shocked at what our rubbish and plastic could cause, so we bought this into our topic by filling the nursery with plastic, discussing how they felt about all the rubbish and plastic on the floor. We asked them "Would they like it if their environment was filled with rubbish everyday?", and the resounding no was a chance for us to develop their interest and use this opportunity to teach them ways of recycling, reducing and reusing.

"We used this beautiful performance as a chance to gain the attention of the rest of the school, our parents and the wider community and make them more aware of what is happening."

Melissa, parent to four year old Elanur said the performance made her 'so proud'.

"To see the class who are all so little do something so brave just makes you so proud.

"Elanur has taken the recycling message on board and takes plastics to our recycling bin - it is hard because a lot of things for children comes wrapped in plastic but we do our bit.

"Elanur loves school, she's really thriving here, and it's all down to the school and teachers."