The wonderful eco-warriors at the Appleton School have been smashing their goals and working extremely hard! After school on a Thursday, the hardworking science teacher Mrs Navarro hosts the eco-warriors club for an hour. There are six students from years 7-11. She uses her own time to help her volunteers save the planet! Throughout the academic year, with their very first campaign beginning last September, they have had multiple projects and goals. They have been focusing on two main issues, Bio Diversity and the pollution and waste of plastic pens!

They have currently teamed up with the amazing eco-schools program who give our own eco-warriors guidance on what to address about the environment to the rest of the students at the school. At the end of the academic year, the Appleton School will obtain a green flag status if all goes to plan.

The biggest plan yet came into play on Wednesday 9th March 2022 when the six original eco-warriors and 14 additional volunteers planted a whopping total of 82 trees on the school field! The eco-warriors and their leader Mrs Navarro applied for the trees from the Woodland Trust by sending letters, the trees had been growing in a nearby nursery and were delivered to the Appleton School on the previous Friday. It took nearly 2 hours to plant these 82 trees yet the students lost no interest and were extremely motivated.

The very helpful and informative year 9, Lucy, was organising and keeping track of the event. She took pictures and told me all about the event. She said that “we’re very passionate about the environment and are hoping to make the school more green”.

The students’ parents had given permission slips for their children to help and Mrs Navarro and Lucy had an efficient strike system for anyone that might have misbehaved but everyone was good as gold.

I managed to speak to a few students that were really enjoying themselves and they all worked together. There were 4 separate groups and other teachers came to help throughout the 2 hours, each group had a section of land that they had to plant trees in, each tree was colour coded and had signs that ensured the students’ safety so they know that the trees might possibly have thorns. Nobody was hurt thankfully since all the students were extremely careful. There were 8 trees left over in the end and though it was windy, they kept going. There were assigned waterers for each group to go and fill up the watering cans and keep the plants hydrated. There were 4 different tree species in total, planted on the edge of the field to help absorb the carbon monoxide produced by the passing cars.

It was a great experience for the students that took part because they could learn how to plant trees. They managed to acquire mulch so they can fertilise the trees successfully. There will soon be a watering rota and they are thinking of getting the year 8s that do office duty in the school (delivering notes around the school on a rota) to water the trees when they have spare time. The trees have been predicted to take around 2-3 years to grow. I think this was a fantastic achievement and they have represented the school’s eco footprint amazingly.

Also, the eco-warriors have been collecting plastic bottles and they are going to take the bottles and use them as planters, and then use the lids for art GCSE projects.

A huge congratulations to the eco-warriors on completing their goals so far and the school should be extremely proud of their work!