As part of the One Million Trees initiative, Belfast City Council donated three trees to our school last December, during National Tree Week. Groundsman Norman Rae, was delighted to receive the three trees for our campus which included a cotoneaster, a common alder and a liquidamber, also known as 'Sweet Gum'. "As we have a large 100 acre campus and thousands of trees, some of which were planted over 150 years ago, it is inevitable that over the years we will lose trees to storm damage or disease", explained Norman. "We planted the common alder tree just before the pedestrian gate entrance of Key Stage 1 to fill a gap from where a diseased tree had been felled. We decided to plant the Cotoneaster on the bank at the side of Key Stage 1 car park as the bank looks rather bare so hopefully in time it will add a bit of colour when in bloom. The liquidamber tree was placed on the main driveway, just beyond the front entrance and across the road from the security hut. In time this will be a lovely feature as the leaves on this tree turn crimson, purple and orange in the autumn which will be beautiful”.

Over the coming years we plan to replace any trees we lose so expect to see some changes around our campus. We are also in conversation with the Woodland Trust about the possibility of other projects in the College.