Does your School want to take part in our School Tree Nursery or Flutter Flowers Programmes?

Tree Nursery Programme Information for schools

The Tree Nursery Programme is an educational session, where you plant tree saplings in your school grounds together with pupils, staff, teachers and parents (any anyone else who wants to get involved). Your school will act as a nursery for these young trees for typically 2 years. When your trees are ready, they can be planted on your school grounds, or relocated into the local community, to be planted out at an environmentally degraded or vulnerable site such as an inner city park, derelict land, floodplains, local woodlands and so on. The planting season for trees is January through to March.

What do you need? A nominated point of contact for ERS (e.g. a teacher), a suitable site, some excited schoolchildren and any adult volunteers you can muster (e.g. other teachers, parents). 

What do we provide? Trees and planting materials (usually guards and bamboo canes), and guidance from an ERS representative will be provided.  We may also match your school to a sponsor, who will provide funding specifically for your trees.  They may want to provide volunteers to help you plant on the day (with your permission). 

Please see below for a short video about the School Tree Nursery Programme:

TREE PLANTING step-by-step:

Before planting:

1. Check you have a suitable well-drained site, allowing one tree every one metre. Sapling trees may require watering over summer, so a nearby water supply is great. For rural schools, a rabbit proof fence is a good idea – speak to us about this (tree guards are provided with the delivery if requested). Raised beds work well – ask your local building contractor to help.

2. Fill in the form. We will get in touch once we have secured funding to arrange a date for the delivery of your trees.

3. Get ready for the day. You will need plenty of spades, a wheel barrow, old manure and straw to mix into the soil as a mulch.

4. Get everyone excited! There are lots of curriculum linked resources available on the web. Here are some useful website, where you can find more inspiration:

   The Woodland Trust’s Tree Pack
   Forestry England
   Sylva Foundation
   

Planting Day:

Time to plant your trees on your school grounds with pupils and any volunteers. Have all materials, trees and people ready. Learn about how to care for them once they are planted, and find our ‘Treemendous’ educational materials below.

after planting:

1. Care for your saplings. Water regularly and maintain the nursery by checking for weeds, wind protection, water logging, and growth. When the weeds grow through the old straw, new straw is added on top of the weeds in the spring.

2. Identify a local spot to plant them out. Public and private land is fine. Contact your local Council to ask about areas of public land that could be used, or contact conservation organisations like your local Wildlife Trust in your area and private landowners. If you need any assistance with this, please just let us know.

3. After two years, your saplings are ready to be planted out! Dig a pit of at least 15 to 20 cm around the root ball for the initial root growth. If the tree is over 1.5m, put a stake (not more than 1/3rd of tree height) in the pit before the tree. To backfill, gently shake the tree up and down to ensure good root to soil contact. Firm the soil gently with the sole of the foot. Water the tree copiously – at least two litres for a small tree. For more info, see The Woodland Trust website.
   

Need some inspiration for activities?

We have developed a publication for schools called Treemendous! together with the WWF, which you can download here. This will provide you some great suggestions on lesson plans, following the curriculum, and also information about the importance of trees to the environment, which you can use as part of the programme with your pupils.

FLUTTER FLOWERS Programme Info for schools

The School Flutter Flowers programme is a three-hour educational session, planting wildflowers in your school grounds. The planting season for wildflowers is November through to March.

What do you need? A nominated point of contact for ERS (e.g. a teacher), a suitable site, some excited schoolchildren and any adult volunteers you can muster (e.g. other teachers, parents). 

What do we provide? Wildflowers and guidance from an ERS representative will be provided. We will provide guides to help schools prepare their site for the wildflowers, how to plant them and look after them in the year(s) to come. We may also match your school to a sponsor, who will provide funding specifically for your flowers.  They may want to provide volunteers to help you plant on the day (with your permission). 

wildflower planting step-by-step

Before Planting:

1. Check that you have a suitable site at your school. Raised beds work well – ask your local building contractor, school gardener, grounds keeper or alike to help.

2. Fill in the form: We will get in touch once we have a sponsor to arrange a date for the delivery and planting of your flowers.

3. Get ready for the day and get your planting materials and tools ready

4. Get everyone excited! There are lots of curriculum linked online resources available for inspiration. Here are some useful links:

   RHS School Gardening
   Bug Life
   The Eden Project

Planting Day:

Plant your flowers together with pupils, teachers and any volunteers.

AFTER PLANTING:

Care for your wildflowers. Water regularly and keep in touch with us if you need any advice on the progress of your flowers.

Any questions about our programmes?
Please don’t hesitate to contact us!