Manley Park Primary School in Trafford were looking for a local woodland site for their teaching staff to undertake Forest School activities with groups of children, recognising the importance of outdoor education.

The City of Trees team helped to identify a small woodland within an area known as Turn Moss, within the Mersey Valley.

We helped to produce a Woodland Management Report, describing the habitats and different areas of the woodland in order to identify areas where the children could get involved in helping to manage a real woodland.

We also ran a woodland management training event for teachers, showing them how to use handtools (bowsaws, loppers etc) and to safely fell those trees that the woodland would benefit from removing.

We also held sessons with the pupils, talking to them about the importance of the woodland, its wildlife and some of the issues that face trees and woods today.

One of the sessions with the children included Himalayan balsam bashing, with one pupil, Alisha, Year 5 commenting; " My best bit knowing that I am doing something to help my world and the forest. Those little oak trees would probably have died if we hadn't done it because it was stopping the light getting to them'. My worst bit was getting stung by a nettle."