Green Tree Schools Award

Caron Henderson, woodland learning officer: I've been working in this area for two years, which has enabled the Woodland Trust to really get schools in the area engaged with our Green Tree Schools Award. Which has really embedded outdoor learning as part of their overall ethos. 

One of the things about the Green Tree Schools Award that I'm really passionate about is getting children out of the classroom into their outdoor environment. 

Ailsa Metcalfe, deputy headteacher: I think, for us, it's given us a focus and a structure and the children have been really excited in working towards the different levels and we've noticed quite a difference actually in mental health and wellbeing in some of our children from being able to be outside and it's helped to calm them so that then they're more ready to learn and to achieve once they go back into the classroom. 

Mel Francis, woodland learning officer: The award makes outdoor learning accessible to any school, whether it's in the countryside or if it's in an inner-city, whatever size the land they have or don't have, the activities just allow schools to really engage children with nature and with trees and really explore their environment. 

Danielle Cacia, teacher: When I first came to the school we were on the bronze Green Tree Award. Now we're on the gold award. One of the things that we did was to plant trees at a local farm because one of the awards is to plant trees in your area to create more of a green space but unfortunately, in an urban school we don't have the facility to plant around the school so we thought it would be nice to contact a local facility where the children actually go for activities and residentials throughout the year. 

Pupil: We're taking photos of the trees on this app called Snapseed. It’s a thing where you can edit your pictures. We've written down the diameter and the height of the trees and then using that will create our powerful presentation so people can understand the length of that tree.  

Danielle Cacia: I'd say that the children have benefited from the award by a lot of children with speech and language difficulties being able to go out and achieve things that maybe they would struggle with usually. Thinking about one child in particular in class, they struggled a lot with usual English and maths but when we went out to do the planting of the trees they were measuring the holes in which their trees had to be planted so he was actually working on his mathematical knowledge but in a more practical sense.  

Ailsa Metcalfe: I'd say it's a really, really fantastic award to do. It's not as difficult as people think - I'm sure that a lot of the schools are already doing those sorts of activities with the children anyway. 

Caron Henderson: So, this is the 10th year of the Woodland Trust Green Tree Schools Award and we've got over now 10,000 schools actively engaged working with the award and we want to see even more schools being actively involved because it is a fantastic resource. It's free, there's no time limits and there's lots of downloadable resources from the website. These children need to be connected to nature and to woods and trees. They are future conservationists and if we can get them engaged while they're at school at an early age, then hopefully that passion that we can instil in them will continue to adulthood.