Tree part of our history

Tanglin Trust school says tree needs to be cut for new building.
Students protest: Tree part of our history
Veena Bharwani, The New Paper 5 Jul 08;

IT may look like just an ordinary old tree to some.

But to Tanglin Trust School student Danielle Guy, 15, the three-storey tall Ficus microcarpa (banyan) tree with its buttress roots, is a part of the school's history.

So when she heard that it is being cut down, she along with more than 30 others and several staff members of the international school, stood in front of the tree yesterday at lunch time to stage a silent protest.

The tree, which has a 30m wide trunk, has been at the school's Portsdown Road premises for more than 20 years.

It is located behind the school campus.

The school management told The New Paper that they had decided to fell the tree because the area around it is being used to extend part of the school building to accommodate more students.

Currently, the school has 2,250 students and is looking to increase its enrolment to 3,000 by 2012.

The management consulted NParks before deciding to fell the tree. It will be cut down in due course.

However, Danielle and the others felt that cutting down the tree is like chopping away part of the school's history.

She said: 'I've been in this school for 12 years, ever since I was 3 years old and the tree has been there.

'When I was 7, I used to swing by the tree's long vines and have even collected insects around it for science experiments.'

'The tree is the school,' she added.

Upon hearing from a staff member on Wednesday that the tree will be cut down, Danielle decided to gather evidence to try and save it.

'I only heard about it at 6pm on Wednesday. I looked through 15 old school magazines to gather information on how important the tree is to the school.

'I found a school prospectus that had the tree's picture on its cover and as the background of its every page.'

Her father Graeme Guy, 55, a biochemist, added: 'I asked her if she was prepared to do this alone and she said 'yes', as she felt very strongly about it.'

Armed with evidence and arguments, Danielle met the headmaster yesterday morning to present her case.

She said: 'I told him that as one of the older students in the school, it was my responsibility to try and prevent it from happening as it was a big part of the school's history.

'As part of the school curriculum, we learn about environmental conservation and we feel that the management is sending mixed signals to us by deciding to cut down the tree.'

Danielle, however, didn't succeed in her appeal. The headmaster told her that the tree has to go.

She said: 'I came out of the office crying and I told my classmates about it. They said why not stand in front of the tree to show our support for it.'

Within two hours, the entire school was buzzing with the news of the tree's fate.

Some students had even made a poster to rally support for the tree to stay, she said.

Danielle's classmate, who declined to be named, said: 'We wanted to express our feelings about the decision to cut the tree down.'

In a staff briefing yesterday, the CEO of Tanglin Trust School, Mr Steven Andrews, explained that the decision to remove the tree was not something that was taken lightly and was only considered after all possible alternatives had been examined.

In an e-mail response to The New Paper yesterday, a school spokesman explained that demand for places at the school has grown significantly over the past few years, with waiting lists for places across the board.

The latest expansion - a new five-storey building - is designed to enable all students who are currently studying in the schools' junior level (7 to 11 years) to enter the senior school and continue their studies up through to the Sixth Form (16 to 18 years).

And in consultation with NParks, the management decided to remove the tree to make way for the expansion.

However, the spokesman added that the school is 'actively seeking expert advice on how to save part of the tree with a view to relocating it on the campus'.