Our First Day Back Planting the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Very Special Tree!

Well, what a morning we had! The sun was shining brightly in the Forest School Garden of Yenton Primary School. The hole had been dug and there was a beautiful Acer campestre Elegant tree waiting to be planted by 47 Year-Five children.  The  School Student Council, Dr. John Craggs, the Crown Appointed Deputy Lieutenant for the West Midlands, The Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Councillor Muhammed Afzal and excited staff from school as well two  enthusiastic members of the BTfL team happy to be out at a tree planting – our first one in nearly two years!

And what a lovely way to start the season it was!

The tree planting at Yenton Primary school was a very special event. Yenton Primary School was chosen to be one of only three schools in the West Midlands to have a tree planted in their grounds to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

  

This season we are all being encouraged to plant a tree for the Jubilee.

The setting couldn’t have been better as the beautiful sunlight dappled through the tree canopy of the forest school. Children lined up to be part of this very special ceremony. Dr. John Craggs made a speech on behalf of the Queen to thank the  children and the school for taking ownership of the tree and how as custodians there would nurture and care for this tree.

The children will see the tree through all seasons and will sit under it to read and to enjoy every thing their forest school has to offer.  Dr John Craggs talked about one of his friends who had attended Yenton Primary School in 1971 and how she had left  to carve out a wonderfully successful career and to travel the world – inspiring words for the students to hear.

The Headmaster, Paul Smith also spoke on behalf of the children and the staff to thank The Queens Green Canopy for this special gift and how honoured the felt to have been given the tree.

Then the tree was planted by nearly every school child at the planting, every member of staff and by The Lord Mayor and Deputy Lord Lieutenant Dr. John Cragg all taking a spade full of earth and placing it in the hole and around the tree – talk a about team work making the dream work!

   

But then the tree needed bedding down so we asked the children if they could stomp? Almost all every eager hand waved in the air wanting to bed down the tree with some stomping.

Once that was done the tree felt very secure. Only then the beautiful ornamental tree guard was placed around the tree and the plaque celebrating the Queen’s Jubilee tree was placed on it for everyone to look on and admire.

   

Once again it was smiles all round, but then the big decision of naming the tree – a decision for the school council. After a few suggestions, they decided diplomatically and unanimously that the tree should be called, ‘Yenty!’

What a great name, for a great tree, in a great school!

So here sits Acer campestre Elegant, the first Queens Jubilee Tree planting in the West Midlands, a tree that celebrates the Platinum Jubilee – Queen Elizabeth II, 70-years on the throne! No doubt this tree will be loved, sat under, admired, photographed, hugged, read around and watered for the next 70-years by children generation upon generation of Yenton Primary School. And while some of us may not be around to see that day. Some of the children that planted the tree today may well come back to visit the tree with their children and their grandchildren – and by golly that’s what we call a tree legacy!

Here is a link to the photo album of the day.

If you would like to record your tree planting as part of the Queens Jubilee tree planting programme your can find all the information here

 

 

 

 

 

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