Cheney Trees

In this week’s session, we had a look at some images of tree trails in different places across the UK and the world, to give you some initial ideas for how we might make our own tree trail at Cheney. Some places had opted for simple signs, and others for more child-friendly ones. Some had created pathways out of logs or stone lined paths. Some had incorporated artwork either next to the trees or even on the trees themselves. These are all ideas for you to explore.

We then set off on a tour of some of Cheney’s trees! We started off with this beautiful tree outside the sixth form office. It is a wild cherry tree.

We then looked at these trees, and decided that the large one was a sycamore, and one was clearly a silver birch. I had thought that this one was a Japanese maple, but I’ve since discovered it is not. I have offered a prize for the person who works out what it is, so I won’t tell you here.

Outside the attendance gate, we saw beeches, oaks and a pine tree. We ran out of time, but will explore others. We found it is quite hard to identify trees without their leaves, but bark and shape give clues.

There is a wonderful website here which you can explore to help you work out which trees are which:

https://www.woodlandtrust.org.uk/

I also discovered an app, Picture This, where you can take photos on your phone and it tells you – this does cost £20 a year, after an initial seven day trial:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/picturethis-plant-identifier/id1252497129

Next week, we will meet Gabriel Hemery, a tree expert! I also asked you to think of some ideas between now and then which we can discuss.