Harold Hill pupils brighten school grounds by planting 420 trees
Drapers' Maylands Primary School in Harold Hill planting trees from the Woodland Trust. Picture: Nicholas Giles - Credit: Archant
Pupils from a Harold Hill primary school aimed to improve their environment by planting more than 400 saplings outside their school.
Principal Spillane with pupils from Drapers' Maylands Primary School in Harold Hill planting trees from the Woodland Trust. Picture: Nicholas Giles - Credit: Archant
After successfully applying for a Working Woodland pack of trees from the Woodland Trust, Drapers' Maylands Primary School in Settle Road planted 420 trees by the school pond.
Kim Hudson from Inspiring Outdoors was on hand to help the children organise the layout and provide advice for the aftercare of the trees.
Principal Trudy Spillane said: "This was a fantastic opportunity for the children to engage with nature, develop our school grounds and learn about looking after the environment while having fun.
"In seven to 10 years we will be able to harvest wood for our fire pit, provide shelter on the grounds, suspend tarpaulin for den building or channel our creativity by learning to carve or weave willow.
Drapers' Maylands Primary School in Harold Hill planting trees from the Woodland Trust. Picture: Nicholas Giles - Credit: Archant
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"Not to mention the wonderful habitats and food sources that will be available for our local wildlife."
Drapers' Maylands provides weekly Forest School sessions for every child.
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Finley Gatdula from Year 2 said: "We had to help the environment by planting more trees to clean the air.
"The trees take in the carbon dioxide and let out oxygen."
Drapers' Maylands Primary School in Harold Hill planting trees from the Woodland Trust. Picture: Nicholas Giles - Credit: Archant
Emaddin Elkish from Year 4 agreed that the trees were important for the environment.
"First we made sure the trees were in the soil, then we put back the soil to keep it in place," said Emaddin.
"We put some mulch around the tree to help it to grow."
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is supporting the Woodland Trust to deliver 400,000 trees for state-funded primary schools in England over a four year period.
Drapers' Maylands Primary School in Harold Hill planting trees from the Woodland Trust. Picture: Nicholas Giles - Credit: Archant
Mrs Spillane added: "The children had a wonderful time being fully involved in the process of planting our saplings and learning how to look after and protect them.
"A special thank you to our wonderful parent and carer volunteers who helped to plant the trees and support our children.
"And thank you to the conservation volunteers from Thames Chase Trust, led by Becky Gibson for their hard work and expertise."
