Pupils from St Mary’s RC primary school received a visit from a group of special guests this week, as part of a royal tree planting ceremony. Dozens of pupils from the primary school planted 100 trees to coincide with the ‘Queen’s Green Canopy’. Peppered across school grounds, the trees which included 10 new orchard trees and a further 20 heavy standards (paid for by the North East Community Forest) will grow to form a small orchard and increasing the school ‘Forest Classroom’ area. The orchard produce in time, will be collected by schoolchildren and used for cooking and eating in the school, and for
local distribution
Forest classroom is key to child’s development, and core part of curriculum, as well supporting urban biodiversity and helping to combat flash flooding and providing increased shelter in times of climate extremes.
The pupils were also joined on the day by a delegation of special guests to mark the occasion. This included the Deputy Lieutenant, John Mowbray OBE; the Mayor of Sunderland, Cllr Alison Smith; Ross Weddle, the Chair of the North East Community Forest and José-Luis Linares of the Forestry Commission.