"LET'S save the planet and everything in it and treat nature as you would want to be treated."

Those heartfelt words, penned by a 10-year-old pupil at St Columba's Catholic Primary School in Bradford, are indicative of a generation being primed to preserve and protect their planet for the future.

He and his fellow peers are clearly conscious of the need to look after our world and they all share the accolades to prove it.

St Columba's is among 19,000 schools throughout the UK who are participating in the RHS (Royal Horticultural Society) Campaign for School Gardening Scheme.

Launched in 2007, the scheme aims to encourage all schools to use gardening as a teaching and learning tool; to show how gardening can enrich the curriculum; to teach children life skills and contribute to their emotional and physical health; and to the demonstrate gardening’s pivotal role in developing active citizens of the future.

Having recently achieved their level 3 award - the first was for establishing their garden; the second recognised skills such as tool safety and how to sow seeds and weed and level three acknowledges conservation planning for pollination - they are now working towards their fourth award.

Teaching assistant, Linda Marshall, explains the criteria involves demonstrating enterprise and focusing on ways they can make money to maintain their garden.

To coincide with this week's Remembrance Day events, they came up with the idea for a Memorial Garden with staff and pupils paying 50 pence to plant a spring bulb for a loved one.

"We are planting daffodils - quite a lot of yellow, and red tulips and poppies for Remembrance," explains Linda.

They are also opening a memory book and creating special flower discs on which they will write the name of their loved one .

As part of the RHS Campaign for School Gardening, Linda explains they are also participating in the Rocket Science initiative.

Two kilograms of rocket seeds will be spending time on the International Space Station as part of British ESA astronaut, Tim Peake's six-month Principia mission.

They will return to the Pacific Ocean in the spring of 2016 and will be packed up with identical seeds that have stayed on earth.

Schools participating in the project will receive two packets of 100 seeds to grow and compare as well as a collection of fun and inspiring curriculum linked teaching resources and posters.

The project will give around half a million UK children the chance to learn how science in space contributes to our knowledge of life on earth, using the invaluable expertise of the European Space Agency (ESA) and RHS Science team.

St Columba's outdoor classroom, a place where they are exercising their green-fingered passion, is located close to Tong Street, one of Bradford's busiest commuting corridors, yet it is thriving with flora and fauna - thanks to the staff and the children's dedication and commitment to caring for their world.

Since receiving a £10,000 lottery grant nearly five years ago, the school has been busy developing The Quad, the natural square in the centre of their school.

Linda and her colleague, Lisa Horam, spend time with the youngsters educating them about the minibeasts in their midst and teaching them essential life skills such as how to grow their own.

"It is getting children to understand their environment, what is in it and think 'we need to protect it," says Linda.

"It is also one of the things we recognise as a school that we need to instil different skills into our children and gardening and being outside develops a lot of life skills; team work, how to use gardening equipment; recognising what something is and giving children that buzz and excitement of planting their own veg and eating it."

Linda believes the knowledge children are gaining through their green-fingered initiatives is imperative to help them protect their planet in future.

"At the end of the day in my lifetime I have seen things decline in areas around the world. The birds that aren't in our garden that were in the garden when I was a child - what will happen when you wake up and don't hear the bird song?" asks Linda.

She believes if children have an understanding when they are younger, they are more likely to be protective of their environment when they become adults.

"And they will pass that on to their families," she adds.