Northern Ireland schoolchildren get down to earth at Loughry Campus
Over 400 children from 18 primary schools1 joined forces at Loughry Campus, Cookstown this week (4 to 8 February) for a unique, week-long children’s conference. Run by the Woodland Trust, the mission was to promote an appreciation and understanding of trees and woodland, and to harness the enthusiasm of our younger generation - our future woodland custodians.
The conference, aptly entitled the ‘Magic of Trees’, was part of the Woodland Trust’s Tree For All campaign - an ambitious UK-wide initiative which aims to inspire young people with a passion for nature. The Magic of Trees marked a milestone - the completion of the first three years of Tree For All, funded by Environment and Heritage Service. And while similar conferences have taken place in England and Wales, this was a first for Northern Ireland and unrivalled in the number of children taking part.
The Woodland Trust offered an exciting programme to include creative and informative workshops. Over a dozen professional artists worked alongside the children to encourage an appreciation of trees and woods through poetry, storytelling, creative writing, photography and music. Outdoor action included woodland walks and tree planting.
Experts from a number of organisations worked together to ensure a truly magical experience. RSPB, the Ulster Wildlife Trust, and Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council were some of the partners who led the voyage of woodland discovery. Tree identification, woodland creatures, and threats to forests world-wide were all on a brimming agenda.
“The children’s conference offered an exceptional opportunity for hundreds of schoolchildren – a chance for our young people to learn about woodland and the wider environment. The idea was that creative media, such as music, would make the whole learning experience fun and memorable”, said Patrick Cregg, the Woodland Trust’s director. He continued: “The conference has fitted in well with Breathing Places2; a partnership between the BBC and conservation organisations which aims to connect people, including schoolchildren, with nature.”
Environment Minister Arlene Foster joined the conference today (Friday) to experience the results of the children’s creative efforts. The Minister made her own personal, lasting contribution by planting a tree.
The Magic of Trees was made possible thanks to funding from Environment and Heritage Service and delivered with a helping hand from Loughry Campus CAFRE. To find out more visit www.naturedetectives.org.uk/magic
ends
Notes to editors
For media enquiries contact:
Kaye Coates at the Woodland Trust on 028 9127 5787, email kayecoates@woodland-trust.org.uk or
The Woodland Trust Press Office on 01476 581121, e-mail media@woodland-trust.org.uk
1 Schools attending: Over 400 children from 18 primary schools attended; 15 of these were Eco-Schools. Find out more about Eco-Schools at http://www.eco-schools.org.uk/whatis/index.htm
The children were Key Stage 2 pupils
St Patrick's, Newtownstewart Omagh; Monday 4th February
Orchard County, Portadown; Monday 4th February
Primate Dixon, Coalisland; Monday 4th February
McClintock, Omagh; Tuesday 5th February
St. John's Primary School, Coalisland; Tuesday 5th February
Woods, Magherafelt; Tuesday 5th February
Donaghey, Dungannon; Wednesday 6th February
St. Patrick's, Creggan Omagh; Wednesday 6th February
Arvalee School, Omagh; Wednesday 6th February
Ballylifford, Cookstown; Wednesday 6th February
Moneymore, Moneymore; Thursday 7th February
Omagh Integrated, Omagh; Thursday 7th February
St Mary's, Magherafelt; Thursday 7th February
Spires Integrated, Magherafelt ;Friday 8th February
St. Teresa's, Omagh; Friday 8th February
Cookstown (non Eco-School), Cookstown; Friday 8th February
Ballytrea (non Eco-School), Stewartstown; Friday 8th February
Holy Trinity (non Eco-School), Cookstown; Friday 8th February
2 Breathing Places
The Woodland Trust, Ulster Wildlife Trust and RSPB are all BBC Breathing Places partners. The Breathing Places campaign is a partnership between the BBC and conservation organisations that connects people with nature in an enjoyable way. For further information visit www.bbc.co.uk/breathingplaces
The Woodland Trust
The Woodland Trust is the UK’s leading woodland conservation charity. It has 300,000 members and supporters. The Trust has four key aims: i) No further loss of ancient woodland; ii) Restoring and improving the biodiversity of woods; iii) Increasing new native woodland; iv) Increasing people’s understanding and enjoyment of woodland.
Established in 1972, the Woodland Trust now has over 1,000 sites in its care covering approximately 20,000 hectares (50,000 acres). Access to its sites is free. Further news can be found at www.woodland-trust.org.uk
Here in Northern Ireland the Woodland Trust cares for 52 woods. These woods contain a mix of newly created community woodland, mature woodland and ancient woodland (land continuously wooded since 1600). We have also created the first comprehensive record of ancient woodland in Northern Ireland.
Tree For All
‘Tree For All’ is the biggest ever children’s tree planting operation, which aims to involve one million children in planting twelve million trees across the UK – the equivalent to one tree for every child under the age of sixteen. Already over 4.5 million trees have been planted as part of ‘Tree For All’.
It’s in our nature
The Woodland Trust is supporting ‘It’s in our nature’, a major new campaign to raise the public’s awareness of our local Biodiversity in Northern Ireland. The campaign aims to help everyone understand and enjoy the whole variety of life around us – our Biodiversity. Any Woodland Trust material bearing the campaign’s distinctive ‘B’ logo will provide information relevant to this campaign and to Biodiversity issues in Northern Ireland.
For further information please visit www.biodiversityni.com or contact the campaign team on (028) 9039 5500.
