The aim of the Children’s Forest project is to support children to develop genuine care for the natural world whilst raising awareness about climate change and the benefits of woodlands through this tree planting project.

In 2021 ARC received funding from the Warwickshire County Council Climate Resilience Fund to engage children and families in planting a “Children’s Forest” in Radford Semele. By July 2023 the project had planted approximately 2,600 trees at Leasowe Farm, Radford Semele. We engaged a number of local schools, community groups as well as members of the general public as part of community sessions held on weekends.

You can read our final project report here for 2023: ARC Final Children’s Forest Report (2023)

In 2023 ARC received further funding from National Grid and in 2024 from the National Lottery which will support our work at the Children’s Forest until January 2026. The emphasis of this phase of funding is on planting a ‘Forest From Seed’ and rewilding further land around our Children’s Forest.

The ‘Forest From Seed’ approach involves foraging tree seeds from the land itself to plant rather than planting purchased saplings. Our school and community sessions centre around learning about the various seeds available each season whether in the form of nut, fruit or winged seed, processing them and then planting them in our tree nursery. We also continue to tend the saplings that have already been planted by watering and weeding.

Our latest news is that we hope to shortly receive funding from Warwick District Council to plant a Community Orchard in Lillington using our Children’s Forest methodology.

If you would like to get involved please join our mailing list by clicking HERE or email us at childrensforest@arccic.co.uk