The Gozo College on Wednesday marked Arbor Day with the collaboration of the Hands on Farming Programme and the Anton Buttigieg Primary School in Qala.

The activity presented a varied programme which included the participation of the school’s pupils through the reading of their literary works and singing. Later children and teachers filled the corridors surrounding the school’s central garden and followed two fellow Year 6 students who planted specimens of two of Malta’s protected trees, the holm oak tree (sigra tal-Ballut) and the bay laurel (sigra tar-rand). They will be growing next to the already established specimens of the national tree, araar, and the national plant, Maltese rock centaury.

A pupil from each class then planted a sapling of the Maltese rock centaury in various pots within the school while all the children were given seed packs and a sapling to take home to look after.