This was led by Nick Paskin, a Science Technician at the College, who is also an ecology expert, and Thom Guy, who is a Science Teacher at the College.  Nick explained the technique used to successfully plant the 105 trees, which were donated to us by the Woodland Trust, which included hawthorn and oak trees, as part of their ‘Big Climate Fightback’ campaign, which aimed to plant one million trees at the weekend.

Along with members of the College’s Sustainability Group, whose motto is ‘Keep Ivy Green’, they harnessed the support of parents and staff alike to plant the first 105 trees around the College’s main all-weather pitch.

The Committee on Climate Change states, “the UK needs a net increase of 32,000 hectares of woodland every year for the next 30 years, in order to help achieve the target of zero carbon emissions by 2025.”

“At Ivybridge Community College we are pleased to continue our steps to make the College a greener place to learn and work.  Nick hopes that this will be the first of an annual event and has other events planned in the future.” said Gill Taylor, Deputy Principal.

Year 7 student, Heather Mears wrote, “Our College is trying to increase our biodiversity, so on Saturday, 30 November we had a tree planting.  We were trying to plant 105 trees as part of ‘The Big Climate Fightback’ campaign ‘Pledge to Plant’.  The Woodland Trust’s goal was to plant one million trees throughout the UK in just one day.

Over 35 people attended on Saturday morning.   It was cold and windy, so no one wanted to stand around for too long.  Mr Paskin gave us a quick demonstration on the easiest way to plant the trees.  We had 5 species to plant: hawthorn, blackthorn, hazel, oak and silver birch.  We started around 10.00am and surprisingly, we managed to plant all the 105 trees in just one hour.   Mr Guy, Mr Paskin and              Mr Shellard helped us a lot, as well as Mrs Taylor, who took photos for the College Echo and the school website.

To plant the trees we measured where the tree needed to be and then stuck in the spade and moved it back and forth to make a slit in the ground.  Then we slid the tree into the gap in the ground and pushed the earth down around it. I really enjoyed it.

We are proud to have been part of The Woodland Trust’s ‘Pledge to Plant.’