Johnsons of Whixley beautify special needs school grounds

Local family businesses Bettys & Taylors Group and BALI Registered Affiliate member Johnsons of Whixley have teamed up to provide over £5,500 worth of plants to Springwater, a special needs school in Harrogate.

The Harrogate based day school provides education to children between the ages of 2-19 years that have a range of complex life-limiting and learning limited conditions. The school also provides an Outreach service within North Yorkshire mainstream schools for pupils with learning difficulties.

Samantha Gibson from Bettys & Taylors Group, said: “As a business we have a long history of working with Springwater School over the last two decades. With this background we were delighted to be able to be part of this project through our Trees for Life initiative in revitalising their sensory garden. “

1,430 plants have been provided and donated for it’s new interactive and sensory stimulating playground that will allow children with disabilities to safely play alongside their friends. This is the second phase of the big build project which will really compliment the new state of the art sensory room and soon to be complete sunken trampoline for rebound therapy; phase three of the project. Plants have carefully been chosen with sensory varieties such as Lavender, Mint and Rosemary included in the planting plan.

Managing Director Graham Richardson from Johnsons of Whixley, said:

“I can think of few projects that are as deserving as ‘Springwater’ and our business is pleased to help in a small way. Our team up with Betty’s has worked particularly well, both being local employers with 100 or approaching 100 years of operating in the locality!”

The ‘big build project’ was launched by Children’s charity Variety on the back of their visit to the school in 2017 when Yorkshire Regional Development Director of Variety, Charlotte Farrington recognised how restrictive the school was for the children. Variety managed to enlist numerous local businesses that attend the Yorkshire Property Awards each year to get on board with donations and services to help give the school a much-needed makeover.

Johnsons and Bettys joint donation will be recognised with a Variety Big Build award at the Yorkshire Property Awards on Thursday 9th May at Rudding Park Hotel, Harrogate.