We have partnered up with Bristol Rainforest to bring a touch of green into our Centres and promote mental wellbeing in education.
The Bristol Rainforest places trees and plants in schools and colleges around Bristol and they are now creating an exciting environment full of plants at our South Bristol Skills Academy, near Hengrove Park.
Organisers at Bristol Rainforest said: “Student wellbeing can be increased by the presence of plants and also by the participation of students in the care of those plants.”
It is hoped that the tree, which now resides by the canteen on the first-floor balcony of the Centre, will get students talking about trees, the rainforests and nature.
Bristol Rainforest added: “Students will also be given guidance on mindful ways of relating to their trees and increase their powers of attention and reduce their overall stress levels, which will help to better their performance in all their endeavours.”
The organisation has provided the rainforest tree and will support with training the students.
City of Bristol College now join the likes of OVO Energy, based near Temple Meads, and Amazon, in hosting these trees.
Events Officer, Erin Hewitt, oversaw the tree planting. She said: “It is lovely that our students will now have somewhere to pause and reflect and practice mindfulness. I love that there is now a designated wellbeing spot at SBSA and hope our students will take advantage of this.”
Bristol Rainforest volunteers have paced rainforest trees in nursery, primary and secondary schools all over Bristol and beyond. The tree at SBSA is the organisations first college tree.
They said: “We are looking forward to working with the students at SBSA to help them understand how trees can contribute to their wellbeing and that of the world as a whole. We also want to reach out to the community SBSA sits in and make this knowledge available to all.”
The installation of the tree is the latest step we have taken on our sustainability journey to create an eco-friendly College.
With more than 11,000 students and 800 staff, the impact of our establishment on the environment cannot be ignored, which is why we have invested £1million in making sustainability a key priority. You can find out more about our sustainability promise.
