We have been running our tree planting project at Queen’s Park Primary School for three years now, with two successful planting-out sessions. We really want to make sure that the project continues, but as Teaching Assistants (TAs) with full timetables of essential academic interventions, it is difficult to find the time to implement the initial planting each year.
Luckily, our school is going through a curriculum overhaul, and the idea hit of getting the project written into the science curriculum. A short meeting with the science lead, who was very supportive of the idea, and our project is now secure, with dedicated class time for planting. Every year 3 student will plant a tree seed as a special project within the science curriculum to support their learning about plant life.
A tree club, run by our Woods for the Trees volunteer Stuart Davies, will ensure the growing saplings are well cared for, and the final step, planting-out, is taken care of by our year 6 students. As we are planting at local secondary schools, this trip is seen as part of the transition process, so is firmly embedded in our school life.
Tree planting at our school is no longer a supplementary, extracurricular project to be squeezed in, in between the learning, but an established and valued part of the curriculum and the learning. That is something our school should be proud of.
Very Good! This is just as it should be – children growing ‘with’ tree seedlings, in harmony, in understanding; it is the same evolutionary process of co-creation, ‘dependent origination’ as Buddhism describes it.