Planting day at Alexandra Parade Primary School, Glasgow
November 2009
Alexandra Parade Primary School, Glasgow was one of the locations visited by the Tree Appeal team as part of Santander's 2009 tree planting activities.
In November, Santander planted 1000 broad leaf trees in schools across the UK, helping pupils and students to make the world a greener place.
Staff from local Santander offices were on hand to help the children plant the trees in their school grounds. Alexandra Parade Primary School is situated in the east end of Glasgow, with around 360 pupils in 14 classes. It is a beautiful red sandstone, Victorian school, built in 1897, and has no grass or gardens in the playground. They are, however, lucky enough to have a grass bordered sports pitch which, until the new trees were planted, had one poor lonely tree!
The school is surrounded by typical Glasgow tenements, which means many of the children have no garden of their own. One of the children was delighted that “my granny’s house looks onto the pitch, so she can watch them too.”
Alexandra Parade hope that the addition of the trees is going to greatly enhance not only their school grounds, but also the surrounding community. They include the study of Woodlands, Mini-beasts, seasons, the weather and much more as part of their curriculum, and the trees will make these much more exciting and easier, as the children ‘love getting mucky, even in the rain.’ This is a good thing, considering the planting day itself was one of high winds and torrential downpour! Nonetheless, a good day was had by all, and the children look forward to the spring when birds will be able to build nests in their trees.
The school also follows the Curriculum for Excellence in Scotland, whereby the children are learning to be Responsible Citizens, Effective Contributors, Successful Learners and Confident Individuals. The benefits that they can gain from the trees will contribute enormously towards this.
