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Mini Forests in Schools – How Plants Can Help Learning

The Woodland Trust and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs are aiming to plant one million trees by 2020, focussing on urban schools in the UK. 

In an earlier blog (Plants Can Help Learning), we talked about how new research has found that plants and greenery can actually help students to learn. Research by Li and Sullivan, from the University of Illinois in 2016 (from the Landscape and Urban Planning Journal) found that students in high school will perform better in tests if they are in a classroom where they can see a green landscape, compared to being in a room where they can only see other buildings.

The researchers found that students’ attention increased by 13% when they had a green view.

This new initiative will see pupils attending city schools in England planting mini forests in their playgrounds.  The Chief Executive of the Woodland Trust, Beccy Speight, says they want to “bring an oasis of green” into schools.

This is interesting as Li and Sullivan recommended that educators put more greenery into their school environments to focus and encourage learning.  It will be interesting to see how this works out in the future.

Making the World a Greener Place

If you are interested in learning more about options for greenery in the world, then why not have a look at our eBook on Vertical Gardening And Farming, or Planting What Where Short Course. Our eBooks are great for learning as well as keeping for reference, whilst our Short Courses offer the opportunity for you to learn something new in as little time as a weekend of study.