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Primary School Pupils get spruced up for Christmas

Pupils at The Willows Catholic Primary School were VIP guests at an official Spruce tree planting and decorating event hosted by staff at Barratt Homes’ The Spinnings development, in Kirkham.

As part of its commitment to preserving natural habitats and encouraging local wildlife, the Five Star housebuilder has this year planted or retained 34,900 trees and shrubs on its developments across the North West.

The new Spruce tree has this week been added to the development’s landscaping scheme to celebrate many of its residents’ first Christmas.

The year five pupils took great pride in leading the decorating duties, with the task of placing multi-colored baubles executed with military precision.

Best known for its Christmas tree heritage, the Spruce is part of the evergreen Conifer species, which also provides a host of wildlife-friendly benefits. Unlike deciduous trees that drop their leaves during the Autumn, evergreen Conifers retain their needles year-round. This enables them to provide more shelter for birds during the winter than deciduous trees.

Barratt Homes this year signed a unique partnership with the RSPB, which promises to see more wildlife-friendly housing developments being built at all of its forthcoming sites.

Commenting on the Spinnings’ Christmas tree planting activity, Barratt Manchester Sales Director, Michaela Lancaster, said:

“We’re proud of our commitment to ensuring that more of our new developments are to incorporate planting features that can help protect wildlife and allow it to flourish.

“As well as the ecological benefits, carefully selected trees and shrubs dramatically enhance the visual appeal of our developments and their wider surroundings, which is great for residents and the wider community.

“We’d like to thank the pupils from The Willows Catholic Primary School for helping us to celebrate our achievements this year. The decorations look great, and will provide an extra special festive feel to The Spinnings this year.”

Five Fun facts on Spruce trees

Some species can grow up to 40m and can live for up to 1000 years.

They grow very fast - from 6 to 11 inches per season, and some species can grow 60 inches per year.

The Norway spruce as a Christmas tree is down to Prince Albert, husband of Queen Victoria. In 1841, he introduced an old German custom of decorating a spruce tree with lights. Since then, the Norway spruce has been used as a ‘Christmas tree’ across Europe.

Spruce trees are often planted as a wind break. Because of their size and branch arrangement, they can block winter winds and protect homes from the cold, lowering heating costs Spruce trees provide a habitat for a variety of wildlife, including beetles, weevils and hoverflies. Caterpillars of moths which feed on the foliage include the spruce carpet, cloaked pug, dwarf pug and barred red.

The Spinnings is a picturesque development of spacious three and four bedroom homes located on Blackpool Road in Kirkham. Homes are available for sale from £249,950. Purchasing options include Help to Buy and Part Exchange. For more information go to www.barratthomes.co.uk/thespinnings or call the sales team on: 0844 811 7799.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Nicholas Thomson .