Children at Sunderland's Town End Academy mark Queen’s Platinum Jubilee by planting trees to help the environment

Led by the school’s Eco Warrier Team, every member of staff and pupil from nursery to Year 6 planted a sapling, with 350 planted in total.

The saplings were delivered to the Sunderland based school as part of the Queen’s Green Canopy (QGC) initiative to recognise her Platinum Jubilee in 2022 which marks 70 years on the throne.

In addition to helping to reduce climate change by offsetting the school’s carbon emissions and lowering its carbon footprint, the initiative has been established to “enhance local environments”.

A statement on the QGC website added: “With a focus on planting sustainably, the QGC will encourage planting of trees to create a legacy in honour of the Queen’s leadership of the nation, which will benefit future generations.”

The school’s Wider Curriculum Lead, Sarah Horn, who coordinated the initiative, said: “I heard about the project on the radio. Investigating the website I was directed to the Woodland Trust, where I applied for trees to plant around school.

"As a school, we decided to plant the trees on Children in Need Day, making it an environmentally friendly day. Each child and member of staff has a label attached to their tree with a poem about nature, their name, year group and the date.

"Hopefully in the future the children can come back and see the progress of their trees.”

Headteacher Nichola Fullard added: “It has been amazing to see the whole school come together on the grounds to support a great cause today, and do their part to help out future generations.

"As COP 26 has been in the headlines recently, we decided to do something to help with environmental changes as well as helping the children of today and the future.”

SEE ALSO: University of Sunderland lecturer and climate change activist close to tears over what he witnessed at COP26

It was a sentiment shared by the children.

Year 6 pupil Callum Huggins, 11, said: “It’s very important that we have more trees, particularly as where we live there are hardly any trees at all. It is one step to stop climate change.”

Fellow Eco Warrier Isobella Clark, eight, added: “Today was really good as we all got to plant our own tree and the teachers did too. We are helping nature.”

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