BTfL Were Honoured to Welcome Parliament to Plant Trees– St Vincent’s Pupil Parliament!

Well on a lovely sunny morning in December meeting the students from Pupil Parliament at St Vincent’s Junior School was a lovely way for BTfL to start the day. Here was a group of school children whose Pupil Parliament is passionate about their community and local environmental causes planting trees with u at Barrack Street Recreation Ground. They help improve their local area and are interested in local and global environmental issues. Only recently they had completed a local litter picking event and one of the children had completed a sponsored run raising money for environmental causes. How lovely to be tree planting with such switched on and passionate children!

   

The eight children from St Vincent’s Catholic Primary School were raring to get going at Barrack Street Recreation Ground. Not only that, we had special guests attend the planting from HS2 environmental group to help us plant the ten flowering Cherry trees during this special tree planting event. HS2 have funded BTfL to plant in and around the HS2 area with local community groups and schools and we are very grateful for their support. The trees planted around the HS2 site near St Vincent’s Junior School will go a long way to promoting the all-important message of how important trees are, especially in one of Birmingham’s inner city areas.

The children were eager to tell us that most of them lived in the area and would see the trees every day. It is also wonderful to note that the children can see the trees growing every day from their school classrooms!

After a short and sweet spade safety talk the children split into groups of two and three and began planting. The children studied the labels on the trees and did their best to pronounce the official names of the trees, ‘Prunus Sargenti Rancho and Prunus Avium Plena,’ they did exceptionally well.

The eight children, one of our smaller planting groups, worked their socks off with double the work to do because we were a small group. In between the planting of one tree to another we stopped to study the local wildlife, a worm, affectionately called, ‘Sid’ by the children and a millipede! After a short study of our little friends the children put them back safely in the earth where they belong.

    

After planting the ten cherry trees the children stood back at their handiwork admiring the trees, excited to feel the ownership and empowerment that planting a tree brings.

There was a sense of pride from the children understanding what it means to plant trees foe their inner-city environment. That sense of pride in the children will grow as they see those trees grow year in and year out. A rewarding experience for us all. And no matter how many trees we plant with children and communities across Birmingham that sense of pride and legacy grows ever stronger each year.  To view the photograph album from our planting with St Vincent’s Catholic School, please click, here 

       

Testimonial from St Vincent’s School,“Our group had a great time helping to plant new trees and learning more about the importance of having trees within our community. We also loved the wildlife especially the worms! It is great that the trees are so close to school as we can watch them growing every day and will be able to see all the changes they make and will monitor their progress. Thank you, Birmingham Trees for this opportunity!”

 

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