Belle Vue Girls’ School protects nature haven (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)
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Belle Vue Girls’ School protects nature haven
1:00pm Tuesday 12th February 2013 in News
Students from Belle Vue School with the Forest of Bradford’s Ian Butterfield, and school assistant headteacher Vlad Waley at the site
A nature haven used as an outdoor classroom has a bright future ahead of it.
Pupils at Belle Vue Girls’ School have been planting 54 new trees on the site to secure its future for decades to come.
The outdoor classroom in Heaton, Bradford, was created in 2011 on land owned by the school’s neighbour, Hallmark Cards, and is used to teach subjects from ecology to art.
It is a registered place of scientific interest and contains rare natural flora and fauna.
The pupils planted the native broadleaf trees with help from the Forest of Bradford, an organisation which works to increase tree cover throughout the district.
Assistant headteacher Vlad Waley said: “The trees that we have in the outdoor classroom are over 200 years old and now we are trying to provide new trees for future generations, because the 200-year-old trees will not last forever.
“It’s a fantastic area for us to have, that piece of land, and it’s thanks to Hallmark. If we didn’t have such a great neighbour we wouldn’t have the area, because it’s their land.”
The school’s 54 forms had raised the money to buy a tree each and a guard to protect it from deer, mainly through collecting donations from the wider community.
