Education
Grounds and trees for places full of children. DBS-checked teams, machinery scheduled around the school day, and the tree-safety paperwork that protects a head's sleep as well as the pupils, across Gloucestershire's schools, academies, colleges, and nurseries.
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School grounds carry a weight no business park does. Every contractor decision is a safeguarding decision, every tree over a playground is a governor’s liability question, and the budget doing all of it was stretched before the year started. Silver Tree Services maintains grounds and trees for settings where vulnerable people and vetting requirements are the daily reality, including our work for the NHS, and brings the same standards to schools: vetted people, planned scheduling, honest pricing, and paperwork that stands up at audit.
Who we work with
- Primary and secondary schools, maintained, academy, and independent, from a village primary's single field to a secondary's full estate
- Multi-academy trusts, several sites under one specification, one contract, and one consolidated invoice the trust finance team can actually process
- Colleges and sixth forms, larger estates with sports provision, car parks, and public-facing frontages
- Nurseries and early years settings, where outdoor space is the curriculum and the safeguarding bar is highest of all
What schools contract
- Planned grounds maintenance, mowing, hedges, beds, and hard-area upkeep on a published schedule, with summer growth managed so September doesn't start in a meadow
- Tree safety management, surveys of the school's tree stock, risk-prioritised works, and the inspection records that demonstrate the governing body's duty of care, because trees over playgrounds, parent queues, and pedestrian gates are exactly where "we didn't know" is not a defence
- Sports and play area surrounds, grass, boundaries, and sightlines kept safe and usable
- Holiday programme works, the noisy, disruptive jobs, felling, major hedge reductions, surfacing, programmed for half terms and summer when the site is empty
- Reactive response, storm damage and dangerous trees made safe quickly, with school-run routes prioritised
Safeguarding is the specification
Our education work runs on the same vetting framework as our NHS contracts: DBS-checked operatives, signed-in access against the school’s visitor policy, identifiable uniformed staff, no lone working in pupil areas, and machinery scheduled around lesson times, breaks, and the school run. Site supervisors coordinate with your premises or business manager, not around them, and RAMS are written for your site, not photocopied from the last one.
Working with school budgets
We’re realistic about what school funding looks like. Specifications are built to the budget honestly, frequencies that match what the money can sustain, stated plainly, rather than a gold-plated quote that loses the work or a cheap one that quietly under-delivers. For trusts, multi-site consolidation usually finds genuine savings: shared mobilisation across nearby schools, one compliance file instead of five, and pricing the trust can benchmark site by site. Where capital works are wanted, playground surrounds, planting schemes, outdoor learning areas, our hard and soft landscaping teams quote those separately so revenue and capital stay clean.
Compliance and procurement
Silver Tree Services holds ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certification, SMAS SSIP accreditation, ARB Approved Contractor status, and public and employers’ liability insurance, with NPTC-certificated tree teams working to BS3998:2010. We respond to school and trust tenders with the documentation evaluators expect, and our public sector track record, the NHS, Gloucestershire Police, Stroud District Council, gives business managers the vetting evidence before the first meeting.
Areas we cover
Schools, academies, colleges, and nurseries across Gloucestershire, includingCheltenham, Gloucester, Stroud, Tewkesbury, Cirencester, and the Cotswolds, with multi-academy trust portfolios considered across the wider region.
Why choose Silver Tree Services
Silver Tree Services has traded for over 20 years from Shurdington, Cheltenham, with 30+ qualified staff across seven specialist teams, ISO 9001 and ISO 14001 certification, ARB Approved Contractor status, and SMAS SSIP accreditation. Crews are NPTC-certificated with IPAF and CSCS where work requires it, RAMS are produced per site, DBS-checked operatives are available for sensitive settings, and public and employers’ liability insurance covers every job. The client list, NHS, Gloucestershire Police, Stroud District Council, Savills, the Church of England, is the vetting evidence.
Frequently Asked Questions About School Grounds Maintenance
Are your staff DBS checked for school sites?
Yes. DBS-checked operatives are standard on Silver Tree Services’ education contracts, alongside signed-in access under your visitor policy, identifiable uniformed staff, and no lone working in pupil areas. It’s the same vetting framework we run on NHS healthcare sites, agreed at contract setup so the right teams are assigned from day one, with the evidence your safeguarding lead needs on file before anyone steps through the gate.
Can you work around the school day?
Yes, that’s the core discipline of education grounds work. Quiet maintenance runs in lesson time away from windows, machinery is scheduled around breaks, drop-off, and pick-up, and the genuinely disruptive jobs, felling, major reductions, anything with a chipper, are programmed into half terms and summer holidays when the site is empty. Silver Tree Services plans each Gloucestershire school’s programme with the premises manager around the actual school calendar, exams included.
Who is responsible for trees on school grounds?
The school’s governing body, trust, or proprietor generally carries the duty of care for trees on site under the Occupiers’ Liability Acts, which means arranging reasonable inspection and maintenance, with records to prove it happened. Silver Tree Services surveys school tree stock across Gloucestershire, prioritises works by risk, delivers them with NPTC-certificated teams, and provides the inspection paperwork that protects governors and heads if a claim or incident ever arrives.
How much does school grounds maintenance cost?
Smaller school sites in Gloucestershire typically run from a few hundred pounds per month, with larger schools and college estates priced to their size, specification, and visit frequency. Silver Tree Services specs to the budget honestly, stating plainly what a given spend sustains, and quotes are itemised so business managers can defend them at governor and trust level. Multi-academy trusts usually save by consolidating sites under one contract: call 01242 472560 for budget pricing.
Can you handle all our trust's schools under one contract?
Yes, and it’s usually the better arrangement. Silver Tree Services delivers multi-site contracts with one specification applied across every school, one compliance and vetting file instead of one per site, consolidated invoicing mapped to the trust’s cost centres, and a single account contact who knows the portfolio. Shared mobilisation across nearby Gloucestershire schools finds real savings, and adding a new school to the contract mid-year is straightforward.
Do you do summer holiday projects as well as maintenance?
Yes. The six-week break is when school grounds get properly worked: tree programmes delivered without a child on site, overgrown boundaries reduced, hedges renovated, and improvement projects, playground surrounds, planting schemes, outdoor learning areas, built while the gates are shut. Silver Tree Services books summer programmes with Gloucestershire schools in the spring term, because August capacity goes first, and September term starts with the site ready rather than half-finished.
Ready When You Are
Safe grounds,
sorted properly.
Tell us about your site and your budget, and we’ll put a specification and a capability pack in front of your business manager or trust.
Or call · 01242 472560