PRIMARY NEWS
Primary schools across Yorkshire take part in National Trust climate resilience project
Visitors to Marsden Moor near Huddersfield in West Yorkshire will have noticed a surprising change in the past year – the presence of many tree tubes that have transformed the slopes and narrow valleys of the bare moors.
Since February 2024, a whopping 65,000 of
these have appeared around the National Trust’s moorland estate, thanks to Landscapes for Water, a groundbreaking partnership project between the charity and another large local landowner, Yorkshire Water. Across a five-year plan, 300,000 new trees will appear on hillsides and cloughs up and down the South Pennines, as part of a project that aims to boost biodiversity and protect downstream communities from flooding.
Alongside the actual tree planting, a major focus of this project is on education – both for the local community in general and for schoolchildren in particular. The project has a dedicated Volunteer and Community team, led by former primary school teacher Adam Novak, that has produced a programme of in-school and on-site events to help children to understand landscape restoration in action. Over the past year, 1,500 children have experienced and taken part in assemblies that explain natural flood management and the benefits of tree planting. These children are then invited in small groups out onto the moors to do some hands-on conservation work.
Children from Marsden and Slaithwaite schools were among those who have helped to plant trees on Marsden Moor over the past year. In December, children came in small groups, bundled up in layers of warm weather gear, to help rangers plant two-year-old saplings. They learned how to position them on the less windy side of pre-positioned stakes and how to ‘heel them in’ with their wellies to ensure they survive the harsh winters. They declared it the “best school trip ever!”
National Trust’s Volunteer and Community Officer for West Yorkshire, Adam Novak said: “Introducing young children to the concepts of moorland conservation is vitally important ‒ after all, they will be the adults of the future. It’s so important that they understand why we must look after the landscape, for them and for all of us.” In 2025, the location of the planting will move north to the communities around Ripponden, Todmorden and Hebden Bridge, the last of which was hit by bad flooding again in late 2024. As part of a plan to plant another 95,000 trees by the end of the year, children from these areas will be able to play a role in reducing the severity and impact of flooding.
In total 300,000 trees in total will be planted by Landscapes for Water over the next four years across 5,500 hectares of the South Pennines, across land owned by the National Trust and Yorkshire Water.
Jess Yorke, Project Lead for Landscapes for Water, said: “We are so grateful for all the help we have received from schools throughout 2024. We’ve had a very positive response from those we have approached, many of which are very keen to get their children involved in conservation. It’s heartening to see even the smallest kids getting involved.”
Steel signing celebrated at Canterbury’s Pilgrims’ Way Primary School
kitchen, and a multi-use games area (MUGA). The existing nursery will remain on site and be connected to the new infrastructure. The new buildings will embrace the DfE’s objectives toward net zero carbon. This will be achieved through sustainable design and construction processes, including energy efficient materials and less reliance on gas by using air source heat pump (ASHP) technology. The roof will be covered in photovoltaic (PV) panels and a fabric first approach to air tightness and insulation will be adopted via the use of high-spec windows and doors to ensure a high U-Value rating.
CarboniCa, Morgan Sindall’s in-house digital carbon reduction tool, will also be used to measure whole life carbon emissions, ensuring potential carbon outputs are managed and reduced during the design, construction and operation of the building.
Pupils, parents, and stakeholders recently held a steel signing event at Pilgrims’ Way Primary School in Canterbury.
The highly sustainable development will replace the existing time- expired buildings with a new two-form entry primary school, which will enhance the educational provision for the local community’s young learners.
Morgan Sindall Construction was selected by the Department for Education (DfE) to deliver the school, which will be operated by Veritas Multi Academy Trust and have capacity for 420 pupils. The new building will be ready for occupation in early 2026.
The scheme will see the creation of a new hall, classroom spaces, January 2025
Guy Hannell, Area Director for Morgan Sindall Construction in the Southern Home Counties, commented: “The steel signing ceremony marks an exciting moment in the creation of the new Pilgrims’ Way Primary School. The high-end and sustainable educational environment being created is a real testament to the close, innovative nature of the collaboration between all the stakeholders on the project, including our team, the school, the DfE, Veritas and Arcadis.”
Dr Kerry Jordan-Daus, CEO of Veritas Multi Academy Trust, said: “We are beyond excited as we watch our new building emerge into what promises to be a learning space which will meet our aspirations for the children and our community.”
Emma Campbell, Pilgrims’ Way Primary School’s Headteacher, added: “So much hard work has gone into this construction and we are now seeing our dreams become a reality, we can’t wait to move in.”
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