St Chad's schoolchildren plant 86 trees in less than an hour

As part of the national 'Forest School' programme, St Chad's CofE Primary School in Winsford have set about planting a triple hedge of green beech trees, to help attract birds and wildlife to the school grounds.

And on March 22, a group of year four students set about planting the first row of trees, thanks to help from industrial air compressor firm CompAir.

Haydn Bettles, who heads up the school's sustainability learning programme, said: "The children loved having the CompAir team with us for the afternoon and we are really grateful for their kind donation.

"Working together, they have helped us to plant the first row of a new triple hedge, which will sit in front of a new pond that the Cheshire Wildlife Trust is developing for us."

Holly Richards, CDH service & operations leader, from Ingersoll Rand, planting with the pupils (Image: Ingersoll Rand)

As part of its work teaching pupils about sustainability, the school runs a host of outdoor activities, encouraging the children to develop a lifelong passion for the natural world.

The pupils have also been hard at work creating a no-dig allotment area, which will help the soil retain more carbon as well as upgrading its wildflower beds.

Joining the children in the planting were kind-hearted employees from CompAir, part of Ingersoll Rand, which donated the trees and has supplied hundreds of plants to schools around the UK.

CompAir has also donated to the school's project to buy some chickens, for the children to care for as part of their curriculum.

Holly Richards, CDH service and operations leader from Ingersoll Rand and CompAir, was happy help with the tree planting and demonstrate the company's commitment to reducing its carbon footprint.

Andrew Power, sales director northern Europe, from Ingersoll Rand, joins year four children to plant trees (Image: Ingersoll Rand)

She said: "We had a fantastic time with the kids, and their love of the outdoors really shone through - a few drops of rain certainly didn't dampen their enthusiasm.

"Our CompAir trees were added to trees donated from other partners, with the year four children planting an incredible 86 trees in under an hour - great work for such little hands!

"We recognise that as an industrial manufacturer we need to work hard to design compressors that will help our customers limit their environmental impact.

"Compressed air generation is said to account for as much as 10 per cent of all the electricity consumed by industry, so we wanted to incentivise our customers to lower their energy bills and their carbon footprint, by investing in the latest energy-efficient compressed air technology.

"It was an absolute pleasure to see the results of our campaign in action.

"Rolling up our sleeves and getting stuck in was a joy, and we'd like to thank all the staff and students for making us so welcome."