Forestry students get hands on experience at Winchester school (From Andover Advertiser)
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Forestry students get hands on experience at Winchester school
9:26am Wednesday 13th March 2013 in Winchester
(L-r) Sparsholt Harry Johnson, Harry Hatch and Luke Olding with their equipment at Kings Worthy Primary School
A WINCHESTER primary school has teamed up with a local college to tidy up its grounds.
Kings Worthy Primary School recruited forestry students from Sparsholt College to clear some of the surrounding woodland.
They have been on site clearing trees, pruning bushes and making wood chip for paths for the past 10 weeks.
It is part of a work programme to help make the school site ready for three new classrooms to be built by September 2014.
School site manager Chris Carr said: “The project came out of the Hampshire Chronicle’s Gardens for Schools competition which we won last year.
“That was created by Sparsholt’s garden design team and I looked into the possibility of students coming in to do some other work and it snowballed from there.
“We haven’t had the resources to look after this area. We’ve relied on probation workers twice a month, but it’s been crying out for attention from people with skills in this area and that’s exactly what these students have. As an additional recreational and educational environment it will be fantastic.”
Sparsholt tutor Phillip Hruza added: “These guys are fresh out of school. A lot of them have never done work outside before so it’s great. It builds up their fitness levels and gives them a taste of the work before they progress onto higher courses within the college.
“This is the sort of work they will do in real life so it’s a good valuable job and I am chuffed we have this opportunity.”
The students completed their work on Tuesday, March 12.
The school now plans to create new access to the woods, rebuild paths, clean up school ponds and create outdoor learning areas.
