Rainford CE Primary School receives donation from United Utilities to aid clean-up efforts

The gardening club at Rainford CE Primary School in St Helens has received a welcome boost to their environmental initiatives thanks to an equipment donation from United Utilities’ Community Fund.

Rainford CE Primary’s gardening club is comprised of pupils and teachers who work hard to take care of their local environment, within school grounds and out in the wider community. The initiative has seen children as young as four planting seeds in the school’s gardens, teaching the importance of responsibility and patience.

Earlier in the year, the school reached out to United Utilities for hi-vis vests, gloves and litter pickers, alongside water butts, for collecting and recycling rainwater to use for watering the allotment set up by the gardening club.

Lisa Hirst, Trainee School Business Manager at Rainford CE Primary School, shared: “We are absolutely delighted to have received a generous donation of litter pickers, hi-vis vests, gloves, and water butts from United Utilities. This will have a significant impact on both our school grounds and the wider Rainford community as we take our pupils out to care for the local environment.

Lisa added: “Our gardening club is especially excited to make use of the water butts to help nurture our onsite allotments, which our pupils have worked hard to maintain.

“Thank you, United Utilities, for supporting our mission to inspire environmental responsibility in our young learners!”

Mark Booth, Area Engagement Lead for Merseyside at United Utilities, added: “We are proud to support Rainford Primary’s efforts to improve their school grounds and local environment. By using water butts to collect rainwater for their plants, they are reducing reliance on mains water and, in turn, helping to lower their carbon footprint.

“It’s fantastic to see such committed action from primary school pupils, and we look forward to seeing the difference that they make.”

The United Utilities Community Fund provides up to £2,500 to projects that focus on:

• Local watercourses
• Environmental wellbeing
• Sustainable drainage

Community groups that are interested in applying for support can email: Stakeholderrelations@uuplc.co.uk.