Schools case study:
Rosebrook Primary School Community Tree Nursery
Pupils had noticed hundreds of tiny native broadleaf trees popping up across their school grounds. With care, they lifted, transplanted and nurtured these trees to create a new tree nursery.
Having spent years developing its own site with broadleaf trees, hedgerows, orchards and willow, Rosebrook Primary School in Stockton-on-Tees has created an extensive, tree-filled, Forest School area on site. For its next steps, it wanted to grow its impact beyond the school gates.
Pupils had noticed hundreds of tiny native broadleaf trees popping up across the grounds on pathways and under the canopies of established trees. These trees wouldn’t be able to grow to maturity where they were, but it was from this observation that the community tree nursery was born. While too small to be transplanted directly, pupils lifted these trees and transplanted them into raised beds, where they could nurture them until they were big enough to plant out into their final location. The school linked up with the local authority, which earmarked areas of land that could become community growing spaces and provide a final home for Rosebrook’s young trees.
With the idea of the community tree nursery established, Rosebrook Primary School made the decision to add fruit trees to its nursery, growing rootstock so pupils could graft trees from their own on-site orchard. These dwarf-variety trees have been grafted and cared for by pupils, ready to be gifted to families connected to the school, providing trees, nature and healthy food to the community.
Led and organised by Rosebrook’s Forest School Lead, all pupils contribute to the ongoing care and management of the tree nursery as part of the student-led, holistic learning that their regular Forest School sessions provide.
