PUPILS at Saddleworth School have a new peaceful addition to their surroundings – a tree for peace.
For the Diggle site is now home to the memento that came all the way from the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
On Monday (November 21), Year 10 students and staff were joined by governor and Chairperson of Saddleworth Parish Council, Cllr Pam Byrne and Tore Naerland, President of Bike for Peace, for the ceremonial planting.
Also accompanying them were Richard Outram, Secretary of the UK/Ireland Mayors for Peace Chapter and Maria Ellis, Chair and Founder of Peace Talks Oldham.
Head girl Anya Wyatt and head boy Daniel Wood were first to break the ground in readiness to plant the hackberry tree, which was originally a seed sent by the Mayor of Hiroshima as a gift to Oldham because of its membership of Mayors for Peace.
The seed was sourced from a tree which, despite being near the centre of the blast, survived the atomic bombing of the city on August 6, 1945.
Other Year 10 pupils present also showed their willingness with the shovel as Tore, Richard and Maria spoke to them and to Headteacher Mike Anderson and Head of RE Kate O’Connell.
Cllr Byrne also read an extract of poetry from Tore’s new book.
Tore hails from Stavanger in Norway and had travelled to Oldham for the event.
Despite being almost totally blind from the age of 15, since 1978 he has been touring the world by bicycle promoting the importance and necessity of peace as President of Bike for Peace.
He urged the students to work for peace as the next generation, and they asked him several challenging questions, such as, ‘Where would you think it is most important to achieve peace now?’
Richard said: “Maria and I were delighted to be able to visit the new Saddleworth School, accompanied by Tore and Cllr Byrne, and to have the opportunity to offer the school community this symbolic tree.
“The peace tree from Hiroshima reminds us that we must never again see the use of nuclear weapons in anger, of the importance of working constantly for peace in our world, and of the ties of friendship that now exist between Hiroshima and Oldham.”
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