News

As the rain cleared on 1 December 2017, in National Tree Week, our students planted a tree to mark the school’s sixtieth anniversary. Andrew Fowler, Headteacher, invited Roy Copper, Chair of Governors, and Paul Luxmoore, Executive Headteacher of the Coastal Academies Trust, to help plant the tree. He then invited Dane Court students to complete the planting by shovelling in a spadeful of earth.
Mr Fowler told the students, “A tree symbolises life; an oak tree symbolises long life. The tree that we are planting today could live for 200 years. It will be growing here long after you and I have gone, and long after these buildings have disappeared. We have chosen to plant a red oak because its green leaves in the summer and its red leaves in the autumn remind us that we also change as we grow. Look after this tree! In years to come, you will be able to point it out to your children and grandchildren, and tell them, ‘I planted that tree when I was at school’.”
The Red Oak tree (Quercus rubra) was supplied by Top Branch Tree Services, whose managing director, Joe Weitzel, is a former student from Dane Court. Joe was very enthusiastic about planting the tree at his old school. He admitted that, as a student, he was fascinated by trees, and that he would have wanted to be involved in the whole planting process. Roy Copper commented, “You never know what seeds have been planted today in the minds of our students, and what they may dream of doing or becoming in the future.”