Maidens Park ushers in new era

Students at Maidens Park Primary School swapped their books and pens for a shovel and gardening gloves this week as the school prepared for its official name change.

All 200 students were involved in the planting of more than 600 native trees around the school grounds as part of the Habitat program in partnership with the City of Bunbury.

Principal Stuart Cumming said it was fantastic to see the students get involved in the outdoor activity.

‘‘Lots of these children have never done gardening except for what they do at school,’’ Mr Cumming said.

‘‘Particularly for the younger classes, they’re going to see some nice big trees growing that they planted as seedlings.

‘‘As the bush area, it will be used as an outdoor education area.’’

The school name will be officially changed from Withers Primary School to Maidens Park tomorrow.

‘‘It has been a long time coming but we’ll get there in the end,’’ Mr Cumming said.

‘‘We’ve been using the name now for about 12 months but this will be the official launch.

‘‘We have revegetated the area of the school that’s not used for anything with all the species that are native to the Maidens with the idea that it will match with the new school name.’’

Mr Cumming said the aim of the name change was to make the school as natural as possible.

‘‘We’ve already got plenty of natural outdoor activity such as an outdoor classroom and climbing trees,’’ he said.

‘‘It has been great to get the children involved with the planting of these trees so that they have ownership of the area that they planted.’’