At Archbishop Blanch C of E School in Liverpool, they have started a project to not only provide greener surroundings for their students, but also cleaner air.
They have engaged their students in what they call the ‘Breath’ project. According to scientific research, more than 1,000 deaths a year in the Liverpool City Region can be linked to air pollution. According to a King's College London study, it suggests that the life expectancy of today's children could be shortened by up to five months, if they are exposed to projected future pollution levels.
Plants like trees are key to cleanse the air and help protect us from the damaging particulars floating all around us. The school has big plans for making their grounds greener and a healthy place to be. They have plans for orchards, wildflowers, and hedgerows, and to create boundaries of shrubs and larger trees to prevent air pollution and local flooding.
We were therefore happy to help provide the school with trees as part of their Breath project.
Lots of planning and preparations took place before the trees were delivered. Students designed and created their own signs for this project, and helped prepare the places where the trees would be planted.
On the day of planting the trees in March, 15 students (aged 11-16) spent half a day planting them alongside 2 teachers. We were told that they were excited about the day of planting.
They are now working on a way to use their tree nursery to create and nurse more trees, which also can be handed out to their community. The lead teacher, Peter, said that it overall had been a very positive experience:
“Thank you for donating the trees. Really pleased with all the resources and support issued by the charity.”
We are for sure looking forward to hearing from the school about this project in the future!
