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Form III’s environmental afternoon

The conditions were perfect: warm, dry and sunny. The children were kitted out in their outdoor clothes and shoes. We had buckets full of trowels, secateurs and gardening gloves and three cameras to log our findings. We all followed Mrs Haden down to a clearing in the woods where we had to find a ticket to allow us entry into the clearing. Whether it was an oak leaf, an ivy leaf, a horse chestnut shell or a beech nut, we all found a ticket to gain us entry. Mrs Haden then told us what we would be doing during the afternoon. Our main task was to find willow trees and hazel trees so that we could

plant whips which would then hopefully take root in the ground. We looked carefully at pictures of the leaves so that we knew what to look out for and set off. We were equipped with cameras to record all the different leaves we found en route. Thea earned two house points for being the first person to notice a willow tree and Flinn was the first to find the hazel. Mrs Haden carefully cut a sample from each of the trees. We then found a suitable place to plant our whips. It was jolly hard work clearing the undergrowth, digging the ground and pulling up all the old roots but it was a job that had to be done if we were going to be able to plant our whips. We worked in pairs and eventually we must have planted about ten. We will return in a few weeks to chart their progress. We returned to our classroom tired but proud of our achievement with memories of a fun afternoon.