Green-fingered pupils joined forces with Head of College, Julian Noad, and Head of Prep School, Henry Matthews, for a special tree-planting project for National Tree Week.

With National Tree Week (November 27 – December 5) pupils and staff from Prep to Sixth took the opportunity to kick start a programme inspired by last month’s COP26 to plant hundreds and hundreds of carbon-absorbing trees – as part of Queen’s climate change action plan. The initiative organised by Joe Mann, Head of Food and Nutrition, is part of Queen’s overall efforts to increase tree coverage and give all pupils the opportunity of hands-on experience in planting and caring for trees while learning about the importance of growing all sorts of plants at Queen’s in helping tackle climate change.

Mr Mann said, “It was wonderful to join our amazing pupils, staff and grounds team from across Queen’s this afternoon for a tree planting session as part of National Tree Week. We will all be planting over 420 indigenous fruit trees before Christmas, courtesy of the Woodland Trust. That’s enough food-producing new trees to fill a professional football pitch making Queen’s an even greener and cleaner place to be. The role of the natural environment in tackling climate change is incredibly important, as highlighted last month with COP26. Queen’s tree planting initiative is an extension of our ongoing work with classes to tackle the climate emergency and create a greener, more sustainable and more biodiverse place. Other examples are our new pupils Kitchen Garden where pupils grow fruit, vegetables and herbs for Food and Nutrition classes, composting all our Food and Nutrition classroom food waste for the garden and even collecting rainwater off the classroom roof for the garden! The saplings progress and their ongoing effects will be monitored by pupils across Queen’s for years to come and leave a lasting legacy”.