CHILDREN at Crossgates Primary school have planted their own trees up the Taft.

The primary three and seven classes got together along with their parents, grandparents and retired school staff to transform the area.

Nicola Drummond, the primary five teacher, told the Press: "Crossgates are trying to promote outdoor learning and education right now, so we are trying to encourage the kids in outdoors.”

A total of 59 kids took part in the activity, and it comes after the school organised a litter pick to prepare the area, collecting a whopping 73 bags of rubbish.

Nicola continued: “The kids just absolutely loved it and they learnt loads about how to plant a tree, how they’ll grow and how to look after them.

"A lot of them keep saying ‘I want to go back and see how my trees getting on’ so now they’ve got a sense of ownership for their area as well.”

The tree planting was organised as a part of the children's Junior Forester Awards and ran alongside the LEAF programme, of which they are the only school in Fife involved.

"I’m the primary five teacher and Jackie Whitley is the primary three teacher, so we’ve worked quite closely together." She said. “We found this award online and it’s a free award. It promotes woodland skills and woodland management.

“There’s six different challenges that the kids had to do, and it was about finding out types of trees, looking at what’s in their environment and the final bit was for them to do some woodland management, which was planting trees.”

A total of 107 trees were planted by the kids, who worked alongside Crossgates Community Woodland and Crossgates Greenfingers.

All of the saplings were donated to the school by the Woodland Trust and hand planted on Tuesday, March 28.

The chair of the Crossgates Community Woodland said: “We scoped out the area where younger trees were needed and made sure the area was prepared for the kids.

“Some of our committee members spent the afternoon overseeing the planting and giving advice as required.

“It is great to see the kids getting involved as the woodlands are community-owned green spaces, cared for by the committee and group members.

“Hopefully, the tree planting will give the kids a sense of ownership and encourage them to value the nature that is on their doorstep.”