School telling us to remove nut trees from community orchard

[Calling]

We are in a local voluntary group and local people planted an orchard in the grounds of a school, for the school.

Now, the school has written to say that we have to remove the nut trees because one pupil has a bad nut allergy.

There are fruit and nut trees, that the local people planted some years ago and we have put a lot of work into weeding and watering. The yield was actually for the kids and we are volunteering with the school with and nature sessions outside.

Before anyone says we are potential child killers, we do understand the importance of safety. There is a management plan in place, but the school has been asked by a parent to remove our trees.
I do feel disheartened - nobody in the school said no to nut trees originally.

Anaphylaxis UK specifically doesn’t recommend a blanket ban, but an approach which manages risks and improves awareness. Milk is the most common allergy in kids and can also be fatal. Many kids are given free milk in nurseries!

anaphylaxis.org.uk/education/about-safer-schools-programme/

There is a lot of training for educational professionals at the moment and awareness being raised due to brand new legislation around supporting students with allergies: 'Benedict’s Law is a national school safety framework and legislative requirement in England that mandates consistent allergy management and anaphylaxis protection in schools.
The requirements came into force in September 2026, following a campaign led by the Benedict Blythe Foundation in memory of five-year-old Benedict Blythe, who died from anaphylaxis at school in 2021. The framework is backed by the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026.'

Students with severe allergies are often socially isolated, bullied, struggle with mental health and miss a lot of school so there is a big emphasis on improving this. Sounds like you put a lot of effort into planting the trees and it is very sad to lose them but I imagine the school are trying their best to include the student in school life as much as possible.

So put some different trees in and carry on with those positive things.

You're just being obstructive because it's change perhaps? Or because it's 'your' orchard?

Ok. Cool. Can my child’s school also be dairy and wheat free then? It’s not too much to ask…

How far do you go though?

Do you ask next door to remove their offending trees?

Do you take the ax to the trees in the park?

Do you write to all houses on your way to the school asking to cut down theirs?

Do you shoot all squirrels, birds and rats in case they drop any?

Where did I say I was considering arguing?
'Disheartened' because of all the hard work of planting trees, weeding them, mulching them and watering them using heavy reels over a long distance.
The educational side was fun. The kids were really engaged.

There is no need for any child to touch any of the nuts. All children can be kept away from the trees when they might fall off the trees. I doubt that there is any documented evidence that the bark/leaves will cause problem.
Unfortunately the child needs to learn to manage the allergy - a d I speak as someone with multiple allergies, although tbf,not anaphylaxis.

Just don't do it. You are volunteers so just walk away.

If I was you, I would step down from your volunteering role. Step away completely. It is ridiculous that the school expects you to remove the trees.

Any of them have TPO’s on? I ask in jest to a certain degree but I really feel for you.

I also get why the parent is worried but we are not going to have volunteers left in many walks of life at this rate.

I walked along a stretch of road lined with nut trees recently. The pavement was littered with filberts - should all the trees be removed?

It is tempting, really... but I worked hard to get a grant to buy the trees, get the lovely community to plant and maintain them so there is a lot of interest. If I just dump them, no doubt I will be a tree killer as well as a rabid child killer.

Totally agree with this poster. A child is more important than the trees.

You're being unreasonable - a) it's school land, b) you're framing yourself as a "volunteer" but just seem to be acting for your own pleasure and glory, not for the greater good of the community. Refusing to cut it down/telling them to bring someone else in is fine - complaining about how it's just "one child" is horrible, there will doubtless be other children and presumably nobody was forcing you to plant it in the first place.

You're probably going wrong somewhere in your mission to run "fun" "educational school nature events" if you'd be OK with a situation where not all the children actually could have fun - again really self-centred. It would also be really horrible to place a child in a situation where their friends could enjoy the school grounds and playtime but they couldn't. Maybe a school could make it work with more responsible older children, but this isn't the age for that

I think you just need to make this somebody else's responsibility.

Agree with all this.

There's something really unpleasant about opposing this request.

Children will be eating peanut butter, nutella and cereal with nuts for breakfast and not washing their hands. It is highly risky to rely on a school environment to be entirely nut free.

surely a nut allergy only occurs if you eat said nut not when you walk past the tree..??

Thanks, I will first suggest to the school that they do that.

@Jaropickles That's a good idea. The company we use to remove trees is insured up to the hilt as well, which is a good thing, as one of the crew was hit by a falling branch over the summer (he's fine but got a nasty clunk). Can volunteers fell trees on school land?

You are only being asked to swap some trees, not concrete it over.

It can still be fun with different trees.

You're taking this excessively personally. It's not a rejection of your efforts.

@concertinacornflake - again, I have not refused the request.
Or perhaps you could point out to where exactly you imagine that I have written that?

I think as the volunteers who have cared for these trees all this time, you have the right to refuse to chop them down! That would be awful and transplanting is unlikely to be successful if they are already established.

If the school keeps insisting then they will have to fund the removal and replacement - the drawback to this will be that your relationship with the school will probably break down.

The only other solution is the school manages the risk - preventing children from going near the trees by fencing etc, teaching the children not to collect the nuts or bring the into school and so on.

Other things to consider: most of the year the trees have no nuts on anyway, and a lot of years the squirrels will take them before any humans get there…… and there are nut trees everywhere - how will the parents handle this throughout the whole area? Seems a bit bizarre. If you can find info on whether the nut casings are allergenic that might help?

Why on earth would anyone think a tree was more important than a child’s LIFE!
Cut it down and plant something else.
I absolutely cannot believe someone would not do those things to save a child’s life.
That poor child and their family have to suffer the stress of a potential life threatening allergic reaction EVERY DAY FOR THE REST OF THEIR LIFE.
It’s so awful how people don’t care about the vulnerable in society anymore.

Do you appreciate the work involved in digging up and replanting trees? This is not a job for uninsured amateurs. If the school believes this is really necessary then they should pay for professionals.