Sherwood Primary School grow a forest following generous donation by SPAR's Preston supplier James Hall Ltd

The donation of the surplus SPAR festive firs follows the season of goodwill, and James Hall & Co say they wanted to ensure the trees were put to good use.

Sherwood, which gained its Forest School status three years ago, lost a number of trees to Ash dieback and so the children jumped at the opportunity to add some fresh foliage tot he school grounds.

As a Forest School, Sherwood places a real emphasis on outdoor learning, and work is underway across the school grounds to improve the environment and education of pupils.

Year 5 teacher and Forest School Leader, Michael Stanton, said: “We’re grateful to SPAR and James Hall & Co. Ltd for the donation of Christmas Trees and they will go a long way to enhancing the school surroundings after the recent loss of some of our Ash trees.

“As a country we don’t look after nature as much as we ought to, and our children are spending less and less time in the outdoors. Here at Sherwood, we have dedicated days of education in the outdoors for skills development to improve this. This is boosted further as the outdoors runs as theme across all curriculum areas, and we also have our extracurricular school Eco Club.”

Year 5 pupil Freya Houghton, 10, said: “I wanted to be involved in planting the trees as I love the outdoors and I help plant flowers in the garden at my grandad’s. It’s fun and I find it a good way to relax. It is also a nice feeling when you have finished and you see all the colour.”

Tom Murphy, Marketing Manager at James Hall & Co. Ltd, added: “It’s fantastic to see the children at Sherwood are so aware of the environment around them and that they were so keen to help with the digging and planting of the Christmas Trees.

“Nurturing our neighbourhoods and passionate about local are two of SPAR’s brand pillars, so I am delighted that we have been able to support Sherwood Primary School’s green agenda.”