The Green Council has started the school year by launching a new competition to see how green-fingered the JBugs and First Year students are.
Each Junior and First Year tutor group will be given a spider plant to look after for the year in their form room, and the class whose plant has the most spiderettes by the end of summer term, will be crowned ‘green champions’. This is in addition to the dedicated planter each JBug form must look after in the Trinity Community Garden.
Mrs Prestney, Head of the Green Council explains the plant competition: “Each tutor group must organise amongst themselves: watering the plant, making sure it’s in a good position for its growth and taking care of the plant over the school holidays. This is a great opportunity for Green Council form reps to lead activity and is a real test in being responsible plant owners. The plant with the most spiderettes at the end of the year will win. I would also encourage any ‘keen beans’ to research propagating the spiderettes and they can come along to gardening club, every Tuesday lunchtime from 1.20pm, for some extra help.
“We’ve launched this initiative to encourage our students to get outside, promote the use of the Trinity Community Garden, and improve their understanding of the importance of green spaces. The plants in each classroom will also help to increase the level of ‘green’ in our learning environment. There are many studies which show that all plants provide mental health benefits: seeing and being around plants helps us feel calmer and more relaxed, thus decreasing levels of anxiety. I am a firm believer that nurturing and caring for our plants can also reduce stress levels and boost our mood.”
The Trinity Community Garden was a huge success for the Green Council last year (see recent tomato harvest, left) and contributed to Trinity being awarded the Eco-Schools Green Flag in recognition of our commitment to sustainability issues.
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