Planting day at Sunnymede Junior School, Billericay
November 2009
Sunnymede Junior School, Billericay was one of the locations visited by the Tree Appeal team as part of Santander's 2009 tree planting activities.
In November, Santander planted 1000 broad leaf trees in schools across the UK, helping pupils and students to make the world a greener place.
Staff from local Santander offices were on hand to help the children plant the trees in their school grounds. Sunnymede Junior School is set in an urban environment in Billericay, Essex.
There are approximately 230 students and the school shares its large playing fields with their partner Infant School. Sunnymede planted a small copse and hedging in 2008 and were delighted to obtain more trees from Tree Appeal, in order to create an additional wildlife area to enhance the science curriculum.
As the area matures, the school plan to add to this by creating walk-throughs, storytelling areas and seating for the children to enjoy some peace and quiet at breaktimes. It was also a very good opportunity to demonstrate the school’s commitment to planting trees as part of the Action on CO2 campaign.
The day was a valuable experience for members of Sunnymede’s green club as part of their environmental learning and to give them the opportunity to be physically involved in a group planting activity.
Alex, a Year 6 student, “enjoyed a very muddy lesson on how to plant trees” and was “really pleased to be part of helping the environment.” All of the children were thrilled to learn how to plant trees and to know that they were making a positive contribution to the future.
John Jackson, the school leader for this activity, said, “All the pupils involved really enjoyed the task and became aware they were part of an activity that would improve our world. The children benefited from working with other adults and cultures in addition to realizing what is physically involved. Being a local school we have children whose parents came here. It would be wonderful if, in years to come, those children would turn to their children and say ‘I planted that tree!’”
