Eco Hurst

The College has launched a new ‘Eco Hurst’ initiative working towards a Green Flag Award in a bid to make the school more environmentally friendly. Prep pupils were invited to design a logo for the whole College to adopt and Oliver Howard is to be congratulated for his design, described as of ‘professional standard’ by Hurst’s Director of Marketing.

Eco Hurst was launched at the Prep School on Thursday, 5th June with a celebration of World Environment Day.  A Whitebeam tree (Sorbus Aria Magnifica) was planted in front of the Prep School as a symbol of the College’s commitment to the future and to being more responsible with the limited resources of our planet.

The members of Prep School Green Club then led a whole school assembly during which they described some of the ways we could make better use of resources at Hurst in future. At the end of the assembly 9 year old Oisin Kernon read to the School his remarkable poem, ‘To a Small Tree’. It beautifully sums up the afternoon, as follows:

To a Small Tree

Puny sapling, lying in the palm of my hand,
It’s your first day at school and your whole journey lies in front of you.
A soft bed of soil lies below you, like a crumbly, dark sea,
Waiting to embrace you and love you and give you life.
The earth will give you all the nutrients you need
To stretch up, to reach for the denim sky spray-painted with clouds.
So you can drink and grow your leaves
So you can sprout and thrive and be a sign to the world to be greener.
Eventually, you will tower above us all,
Adapting and changing through the seasons.
Your white flowers leading to red berries
And to seeds which will continue the circle of life in their turn.
When you grow up, little tree, you will become a king:
Sorbus Aria Magnifica.
All our trust and hope lies with you
So now I will gently place you in the soft, warm earth
So that you can begin your journey.
Good Luck!

Oisin Kernon
aged 9