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“I worked as the Environmental Education Officer for Brighton & Hove City Council for 19 years.

My primary role within the council was to run the council’s environmental education programme for schools (there were approximately 100 schools in my ‘patch’, including the independents and special schools). A great deal of my work involved engaging local schools with the Eco Schools/Sustainable Schools schemes, as well as thinking of new projects and activities to get the eco message across to local children.

‘Touchwood Trees’, and Karen, in particular have been commissioned by myself, on behalf of the council, for various projects within schools and with other local groups in Brighton & Hove on many occasions.

I have known Karen in a professional capacity for approximately 10 years. Karen is extremely talented and is able to work with children and young people using many different media such as mosaic work, gardening, art and painting, sculpture etc. For example, one of the projects we have worked together on included the St Andrew’s Old Church (in Hove) Peace Mosaic. This project was prepared over several weeks with the children and young people from their Sunday school. It was a fantastic project and the mosaic still remains intact (not vandalised). It was an extremely inclusive project, as children of all ages and abilities were able to take part and ‘do their little bit’ with the relevant guidance from Karen.

Other projects have included gardens, murals and mosaics within several schools. St. Andrews School had their newly built school and grounds developed by Touchwood over 3 years.

There was a totem pole designed and created with local school children at a primary school in a very socially disadvantaged area within the city. The totem pole was built in the school grounds as part of a local ‘Heritage & Environment’ Festival.

Karen has also been an active player at my Eco Schools Twilight training sessions, which is an annual professional development session for local teachers, bursars, teaching assistants, governors etc. She has regularly attended these with either a stall, giving out information and advice to teachers, or running a ‘hands on’ workshop.

Karen has also organised and carried out a very successful Learning For Life project at Stanmer Park, which enabled a large number of school children to visit the park and learn a wide variety of life skills.

I have always found Karen and her team at Touchwood Trees to be very professional, reliable, hugely talented with many different skills, and they always deliver their projects on time, within budget, and to a high standard.”

— Kim Jackson, formerly Environmental Education Officer, Sustainability Team, Brighton & Hove City Council