Our conservation programme is in full swing thanks to Miss Plancke - six tree planting workshops have taken place over the past two days with over 200 trees now being added to the school fields, mainly around the football and rugby fields.

If all goes well, three oak trees will be taking centre stage in a few years time on the hills surrounding the fields; Rowan, Holly, Elders, Lime and Hazel trees have also been added around them.

As the football and rugby pitches were quite waterlogged this week, the teams added Birch and Alder trees around them to absorb the water and dry up the area in the future.

Miss Plancke described how the school has its own 'French' orchard: "We now have Cherry trees, Conference pears and Plum trees on school grounds, which is fantastic. Unfortunately, the UK is currently facing a shortage of native apple trees and we are currently awaiting delivery as soon as they are available. The other option would be for some French apple tree species to be planted in the area, which I personally don't see a problem with, but we will wait and see if we can get the UK native variety first.

"A big thank you must go to all the teachers who came along and assisted the students with the sessions, some great feedback from them and the Groundwork UK staff. The next workshops will take place in the new year, with the remaining Year 7 and the next cohort, Year 8, first. I can't wait!"