Polam Hall School in Darlington has marked a new chapter with a symbolic service, planting a young sapling Cedar tree in its grounds.
The tree has been a symbol of the school in recent years and the planting of the sapling has served as a representation of changing times at Polam Hall.
The day and boarding school’s free school proposal was approved by the Department for Education last month, allowing it to share its outstanding educational and pastoral offering to all from 2015 onwards.
The ceremony involved the whole school, parents and friends who came together to celebrate the new tree and what it represents.
Around 200 students, parents and friends of the school were there to witness the ribbon cutting ceremony. Head student Chelsea Morrison read the traditional Polam Hall thanksgiving before she and the school’s youngest student, four year old Lucas Evans, cut the ribbon from around the tree.
John Moreland, headmaster at Polam Hall School said “There is tradition of planting at Polam Hall. Jonathan Backhouse, a previous owner of the property landscaped it extensively and the original Cedar was probably planted by him around 1825. I hope that our children, grandchildren and great grandchildren will get to see it as a true cedar rather than the Christmas tree it looks like at the moment.”
Polam Hall has recently been approved by the Department of Education to become a free school, is currently in its pre-opening phase and will open as a Free School in September 2015.
It has been based at its site in Darlington since 1854 and prides itself on maintaining its traditional values and rich heritage while being able to offer pupils the strongest possible skills for the future.
For more information on the school visit: www.polamhall.com