Following negativity around tree feeling in St Albans, Cunningham Hill Infants School has tried to put a positive spin on the situation.

Arborcare, the company hired to carry out the tree works, agreed to let the school have whatever timber was salvageable from the tree they were cutting down outside the school grounds. 

Herts Advertiser: The school created steppingstones with the trunk rounds and a sitting circle with some of the larger branches.The school created steppingstones with the trunk rounds and a sitting circle with some of the larger branches. (Image: Cunningham Hill Infants School)

A spokesperson for the school said: "They also cut it up for us and then drove it in to our playground and positioned it where we wanted it, much to delight of the onlooking children. A big truck in the playground is novelty indeed!

"Not only have we benefitted from the timber of the tree itself but there were two empty birds' nests which we've put in our outside classroom so the children can handle and see the amazing structure of them up close.

"We've created stepping stones with the trunk rounds and a sitting circle with some of the larger branches.

"The children have played with them every day since the tree was cut. We've had so much use from it, a perfect example of repurposing and turning a negative into a positive."