Leatherhead (8 January 2007) -- Thinking ahead to summer, schools are trying to provide more shade for pupils in the playground - and two schools in Leatherhead are growing their own sun shades.

Pupils from St Peter’s Catholic Primary School are building a willow tunnel that their pupils can play in during break times, and can also use as a shady study area. They are using a type of willow that grows in flexible rods that can be woven together.

“The flexibility of willow has been used for basket-making for thousands of years, but a more recent use is to create sculptures and structures that continue to grow, by pushing the rods into the ground,” explained project co-ordinator Louise Miller.

The children will be working with artist Karen Lucas to create the tunnel as part of the Greener Grounds programme - a partnership project for five Leatherhead schools run by Learning through Landscapes and supported by ExxonMobil. Karen said: “Nature and art makes a great marriage, inspiring organic shape and form.”

Denice Fennell, Community Affairs manager at ExxonMobil, commented: "I am delighted that we have been able to help the School in this way. It will be great to see the children having fun playing in the willow tunnel, which will provide much needed shade during the summer months."

Barnett Wood Infants, another ExxonMobil Link School, is also weaving willow this winter. One willow tunnel is already well established, and some small wigwam-style domes are being planted for the children to use in the summer.

Notes to editors

The ExxonMobil Greener Grounds initiative is delivered by Learning through Landscapes and is part of the ExxonMobil Link School programme. Through the programme, ExxonMobil works with, and supports, some 45 schools, all of which are close to its main employing points in the UK. St Peter’s Catholic Primary School is one of the ExxonMobil Link Schools, and works with the ExxonMobil Headquarters building in Leatherhead.

Learning through Landscapes is the national charity that makes it possible for children and young people to be able to enjoy the many unique opportunities and experiences that well designed, managed and used school grounds can provide. It brings children into contact with the natural world in their crucial formative years and advances their rights to enjoy and benefit from their school grounds.