At first you miss it, but a flash of green makes you pause. And then you begin to see: emerging out of the detritus of a derelict site in central Glasgow, a group of fledgling oak trees is gently swaying in the breeze. Leaves brush against upturned trolleys and a branch knocks against a discarded can of Special Brew.

Walking around the city, you see similar sights on similar sites. Where once there was an eyesore, nature is slowly returning.

OK, so it won’t work exactly like this. But come this time next year, there is an aim to greenify Glasgow’s derelict land with native Scottish oaks. And if it happens, it won’t be environmental activists who will have done the work, but local primary school children.

It’s all down to a large group of willing schools and the From Little Acorns Grow (FLAG) community organisation, which consists of Glasgow educators, writers, artists, designers, musicians and environmental activists.

Together, they have devised the Lost Woods project. The aim is to support young people to actively shape their environment, drawing inspiration from the work of Kenyan social and environmental activist Wangari Maathai. In 1977, Maathai founded the Green Belt Movement, a non-governmental organisation focused on planting trees and environmental conservation.

While Glasgow is a long way from Kenya, the target is the same: teaching people about climate change in a way that empowers them to make a difference in the community in which they live.

The first phase of the Lost Woods project was delivery of native Scottish oak seeds, along with compost and plastic cups, to primary schools across the city. Unfortunately, the delivery dates came at the same time as Scotland was going into lockdown, so the logistics were not easy, explains Lesley McLean, one of the volunteers at FLAG. However, thanks to a generous offer of three days of time and labour with a truck from Green Move, the group was able to kick-start the project.

“It ended up being a huge mad dash,” says McLean. “We spent the whole weekend packing up all the seeds and getting them ready for all of the schools, and we made deliveries every day that week. So, by the time the schools closed on 20 March, we had made our last delivery, which was fantastic.”

The Glasgow Gaelic School, one of the institutions involved in the project, had just 200 of its 540 pupils in attendance on the day the seeds were to be planted. However, it managed to get all of its seeds into pots.

“We had a production line of the youngest ones in the school,” explains principal teacher Margaret Sproat. “We wanted to create memories as much we could because we didn’t know how long we were finishing up for. We worked through lunchtime and had everyone planting.”

Another school, Ashpark Primary, also managed to get all of its acorns planted just before it was forced to close its doors.

“It was wonderful to participate in such a hopeful project while things around us were so uncertain and worrying,” says Eabhnat Ní Laighin, outdoor learning teacher at the school and co-chair of Climate Ready Schools Glasgow. “I helped every class plant their acorns and the pupils loved it.”

With seeds in pots, phase two was initiated: education. McLean explains that when learning about the climate emergency, young people can easily become overwhelmed by the scale of the problem, causing them to develop a sense of “eco-anxiety” or alternatively to simply disengage from the issue. FLAG wants to show children that no one is too small to make a difference. So, alongside the tree planting is a scheme of work and resources that adheres to Scotland’s Curriculum for Excellence.

“We have a teacher, and teacher friends [in the group], and over the space of just a couple of weeks they came up with really comprehensive lesson plans,” McLean says. “We have plans for five-year-olds right up to P7 [equivalent to Year 6 in England]. It all links into climate change outcomes; it could be to do with the life cycle of a plant for the younger pupils, moving into the in-depth details of climate change for the 10- to 11-year-olds.”

The aim of the lessons is to teach children about the various ways that trees benefit the environment, be it through the absorption of carbon dioxide and airborne pollutants, increasing biodiversity or improving health and happiness.

The education side is a core part of the project, says McLean - but she adds that it has also been useful for buy-in: “These lesson plans enabled us to have conversations with schools, as it wasn’t just a bunch of hippies showing up with seeds.”

So, what does a typical lesson plan look like? One example lesson for early-level students begins with an introduction to Maathai, after which pupils are encouraged to discuss the importance of trees, what happens when trees are cut down and the benefits of having healthy forests.

From here, pupils will engage in role-playing activities - acting as woodcutters, tree planters and the happy and healthy local community. They also learn about the many benefits of planting trees and, ultimately, plant their acorns.

At Glasgow Gaelic School, these lessons will be waiting for pupils when schools reopen in Scotland.

“On our return, we will do a week of lessons and by this time the seedlings should have grown,” says Sproat.

The school has also reached out to parents and pupils through the school newsletter, to make sure that children don’t forget about the project during their time out of the classroom and will be ready to pick up where they left off when they come back.

So, what’s next for the programme? FLAG is hoping to inspire parents to take up similar projects, with specially tailored lesson plans for those who are home-schooling. The team also have ambitions to extend the reach of the project beyond Glasgow.

“We’re going to try to send different packs out to other schools in Scotland,” says McLean. “Glasgow is known as a green city, but there are also lots of derelict sites, so it’s a good place to start - but with a view to encouraging others to do what we’ve done.”

So, keep an eye out when you’re passing a derelict space - green shoots may appear in the most unusual of places very soon.

Carly Page is a freelance journalist

This article originally appeared in the 5 June 2020 issue under the headline “From little acorns, a mighty green school movement is growing”