School Projects
Tree Action will support your school in whatever ways you feel necessary to see a tree planting and maintenance project delivered for students.Many schools don’t have the time or resource to plan, deliver or fully fund major tree planting and maintenance project on the school grounds.
Young tree saplings provided for free by a number of organisations often come with no support, no planning guidance specifically for your site, may be unsuitable for your grounds, and can be vulnerable to being killed by pests, poor ground maintenance service or overexposure to footfall. The answer to this is simple: Buy older more established trees, then protect and care for them well.
Taking this a step further, as we have seen on projects to date, the whole process of planting and aftercare is great opportunity for students to connect with nature and feel responsible for a part the planet and doing their bit to tackle climate change. Just take a look at some of the comments from students at one primary school after only a few months of caring for trees we had recently planted and they have been diligently weeding and watering:
Students from Buckingham Park Primary School give feedback on their Trees | Tree Action UK
“I love watering our tree and helping it grow up big and healthy. I think when it’s bigger it will be a home for birds”
Will, Buckingham Park Primary School
Tree Action will support your school in whatever ways you feel necessary to see a tree planting and maintenance project delivered for students.
We can:
- Develop a site plan to including a variety of fruiting and woodland trees that you would like. This can include plums, cherries, apple, pear, silver birch, oaks, field maple, acers, oaks and lime depending on the grounds and availability.
- Depending on the size of project, raise funds to cover the costs of up to 100% of project cost through our corporate, trust and grant fundraising initiatives and/or running a crowdfund campaign in partnership with your school.
- Manage the crowdfunding campaign if needed.
- Work with you to ensure the plan conforms with all building regulations, site and future build plans and has local authority approvals if needed.
- Source and select suitable UK native grown trees from reputable suppliers and organise delivery.
- Organise the tree planting as one or two event days where some of your students can become actively involved in planting, and where possible organise talks by arborists for the students on trees and after care.
- Provide an arborist recommended maintenance care plan for your trees you can share. with the students so they have the opportunity to care for the trees every month
- Organise tree watering from volunteers or corporate partners during the summer holidays.
If for whatever reason your school has little room for trees on site we can look to get your students engaged in tree planting and maintenance projects on public or private land. We can work with local authorities to agree spaces near the schools, or landowners who may have spaces for such projects.
Case Studies
Warden Park Secondary Academy, Cuckfield, West Sussex – 57 Tree Project Delivered November 2021
Two action packed tree planting event days on 19th and 20th November 2021 was the culmination of a tree planting project which began before the pandemic, with funds being raised during it. At the event students planted potted silver birches in one location, dug holes and ferried pear, apple and cherry trees to their planting locations as well as for limes, beeches, hazels and sweet chestnut trees planned for spaces on the edges of the school site.
The 57 trees were in the plan which was drafted by Liam Lord a Sussex Park Ranger who gave his time supporting the project . Donors and sponsors from the crowdfunding campaign organised by TreeAction and raising over £7000 also turned up to plant the trees they had sponsored. The funds raised also paid for a deer fence to protect the fruit trees, a polly tunnel for growing plants, and pond lining for a new pond being built in the garden area to the rear of the school. The area now provides an excellent location for students to relax, connect with nature, with the trees and the pond also increasing biodiversity.
Buckingham Park Primary School – 60 Trees project in 3 stages including December 2021 and March 2021
On 9th December 2021 5th year students at Buckingham Park Primary school, Shoreham by Sea planted Rowan trees and an Indian Bean Tree on school grounds with the help of arborist Peter Whish who also talked to them about the importance of trees and sustainability. Staff from RLF and Garden Sage nurseries planted a further 18 trees, plums, silver birches, cherry, acers and a liquid amber tree on school grounds.
A further 14 trees including Pear trees and a walnut tree were planted in March 2022. All tree varieties were selected to provide fruit, interesting leaves, flowers and colour bark types to engage the students as well as develop biodiversity. The project was paid for by parents and local businesses via TreeAction’s 2nd successful crowdfunding campaign whose supporters included RLF, Aviva Community Fund, Co-Op and Brighton City Airport, and Bailey Solutions Ltd and parents, and also thanks to a separate donation of over £4000 by local technology business the Focus Group Ltd. TreeAction gave the school a plan to look after the trees which has been fully adopted by the school, with students of all 22 classes now responsible for their own dedicated trees which they will care for every year. You can read their feedback about their experience of caring for their trees here : Students from Buckingham Park Primary School give feedback on their Trees | Tree Action UK
The final stage of the project which will includes planting 10 cherry trees on the site is scheduled for December 2022.
Eastbrook Primary Academy, West Sussex – 12 Trees Project plus extension of water retention
In March 2022 students from Eastbrook Primary Academy in Southwick planted 12 Oak, Silver Birch and Lime trees on site in their forest school area that we acquired from tree nursery More Trees Please. Tree Action sourced a gardener support to support the planting alongside the schools Forest School teachers, with the schools new Headmaster also helping all the students from Year 1 to Year 6 to be involved in planting. Students have named their trees and will be responsible for looking after and watering them.
Year 6 students will pass their tree on the new Reception year in a special handover ceremony before they leave for secondary school which will take place every year. The trees were paid for from TreeActions 2nd successful crowdfunding campaign with supporters including parents and Shoreham Power Station. The next stage will be building a sustainable watering system for new and existing trees and we have provided a plan for this which has been given the go ahead. We’ll also be providing funds for the school to buy tools and watering cans for the students.
Comments from our Supporters
The more we engage with nature the healthier we make the world we live in for us and our future generations, planting and tending trees to replace those we have used over the years is vital work.
Thank you for all your hard work. We are passionate about nature and deeply saddened by the speed at which it is being obliterated. What you are trying to achieve is vital.
Great environmental project helping the communities and the mental health of young children.
Great idea getting children involved with nature, resolving climate change and the great outdoors – a win win!
Can we help you to plan your next tree planting project?
Get in touch – ricky@treeaction.org.uk
To support further projects in schools click here or email info@treeaction.org.uk