Hands On : Letter

School address
School address
School address

Dear Head Teacher, Governors and (insert name of the staff member you spoke to)

Re: Free Tree Planting in School

After our telephone conversation on (insert day and date you called), I am writing to pass you the full details of the Woodland Trusts excellent Tree For All project. Tree For All grew from a simple vision that every child should have the chance to plant trees. It is the most ambitious children's tree-planting project ever launched in the UK, with plans to help plant 12 million trees over the next five years. With your support, Tree For All could give one million children the chance to make a positive difference.

I would like to assist and encourage you to take advantage of the project and get your free pack of 30 trees for the school. The Druid Network (http://druidnetwork.org) will be supporting the Woodland Trust with a donation of £40 if you choose to get your school involved.

The Woodland Trust website has all the information you need in order to make up your mind.  There is a very simple and quick procedure to register for the free trees (http://www.treeforall.org.uk/JoinIn/AsASchool/). If you choose to order trees to plant in the school, you simply order them online and they are sent through the post in November - ready for the tree planting season.

As you will see on the WT website, you can choose either the ‘Copse Pack’, which contains 30 native trees (10 of each including rowan, silver birch and wild cherry) suitable for planting as a small wooded area or 'copse'. If a hedge would be more suitable and useful within your school grounds, you can order the ‘Hedgerow Pack’ which contains 30 plants: 6 hawthorn, hazel, holly, dog rose and dogwood. This will create a beautiful 8 meter long hedge which is also an excellent habitat for wildlife. If the school grounds are very large the Woodland Trust are able to provide an additional pack.

The Woodland Trust also has comprehensive resource packs for teachers and lots of easy to follow advice on how to plant the trees. Please see http://www.treeforall.org.uk/JoinIn/AsASchool/Schools+resources.htm for the free downloadable resources.

As an environmentalist/Druid/tree warden (delete as appropriate) living locally, I am happy to give you advice and support about where and how to plant the trees, naturally at no cost to the school.  If you would like, I am happy to come into school to discuss this with you. Please call or email me on (insert your telephone number or email address here) to arrange this at your convenience. 

Alternatively, or additionally, the Woodland Trust provides free and simple advice sheets on how to plant the trees. Further resources are available free through Learning through Landscapes (http://www.ltl.org.uk), which can provide lots of advice on where to site the trees in your school grounds.

I look forward to hearing from you about whether you are going to enable your pupils to have the magical experience of planting trees in their school.

Yours sincerely

(insert your name here)