AN ambitious project to plant a tree for every primary school pupil in Bradford is nearing its 55,000th tree.
This week pupils and staff of St Matthew’s Catholic Primary School in Allerton are working with volunteers to plant 3,000 native trees in the school grounds.
The planting is part of the Tree for Every Child project, a Bradford Council scheme that has seen tens of thousands of trees planted across the Bradford District in the past three years.
Pupils, families, staff, members of Bradford Environment Education Service and a group of volunteers the National Science and Media Museum, began the week of planting on Tuesday.
Pupils have also been offered the option of getting ‘takeaway trees’ to plant in their gardens at home.
The Tree for Every Child project was launched in November 2020 with the aim of planting 55,000 trees – the equivalent of one tree per primary school child – over a four-year period. So far approximately 45,000 trees have been planted.
150 trees planted in Wrose as part of Tree for Every Child
Recent figures show that 140 trees and shrubs were planted in 2021-22 at 20 schools who opted to have fruit-growing orchards created on their grounds. A further 25 schools during the same period had 5,000 native trees planted in total.
By the time the project ends, at the end of March, 40 schools will have new orchards and 50 will have planted native trees.
Through the planting sessions, over 1,000 children and adults have been engaged in tree planting, with the work with schools including educating children about climate change, doing their bit to look after the planet and the multiple benefits of trees.
The schools who have taken part community planting this season are Thornton Primary, Stocks Lane Primary, Appleton Academy, Worthinghead Primary and St Matthew’s Catholic Primary.
Councillor Sarah Ferriby, Portfolio Holder for Healthy People and Places, said: “Tree for Every Child has been such an exciting and fulfilling project for everyone involved. It has proved how children, young people and our wider communities can work together to achieve something amazing and valuable for our district and the climate.
“It has also been extremely heartening to see how enthusiastic and engaged people have been in giving up their time to help with the planting.”
There are four partners working with the council’s Trees and Woodlands team and Trees for Cities to deliver the project: Fruit Works Co-operative, Bradford Environmental Action Trust, Forest of Bradford (part of Bradford Environmental Service) and YORgreencic.
The Council has invested £250,000 into the programme.
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