The classroom has moved outside for a Tavistock school when the pupils planted 105 trees in the grounds to green their environment.
St Peter’s Junior School received saplings for a hedgerow mix, including hawthorn, holly, crab apple and hazel from the Woodland Trust as part of the trust’s planting scheme. The saplings provide a border to the school’s forest school outdoor learning area.
Nicola Mackenzie, estates lead for the St Christopher’s Multi-Academy Trust, to which the school belongs, said: “The school and team and estates team have been working hard together to develop and improve the outdoor learning environments. “We are hugely lucky to have a fabulous school site and we want to maximise the impact of this environment on pupils learning experiences, personal development, physical and mental health. We offer forest school experiences for our children with our Wild Tribe trained staff and have been transforming our environmental areas across the school site. “We have also been fortunate to receive free trees from the Woodland Trust which the children have enjoyed planting within our forest school site.
“Sir David Attenborough said ‘children grow up not knowing about nature and appreciating it, they will not understand it, and if they don’t understand it, they won’t protect it, and if they don’t protect it, who will?’”. The school has now requested more trees and are awaiting a second order of 60 saplings - silver birch; rowan; wild cherry which are planned to make a copse section in a new environmental area. Staff Wild Tribe training allows best practice outdoor teaching.
