Volunteers’ team-up for environment garden spruce up, to build better connections between pupils and nature

A school environmental garden is ready for the summer months of learning, thanks to great community action.

Volunteers joined forces with Co-op Academies Trust staff for the essential maintenance actions and greenery management needed at Co-op Academy Friarswood.

The volunteering action involved staff at national business water retailer Water Plus, which delivers services including helping public sector organisations and businesses to build bespoke water management plans. It also raises awareness around actions that can lead to greater water and energy efficiencies.

In fact, it’s the second Co-op Academies Trust and Water Plus volunteering team-up, so far, in 2026, to boost learning opportunities around the environment and the difference small actions can make to help nature and care for natural resources, for everyone.

Five volunteers from Water Plus also transformed an eco garden, to unlock further learning opportunities for pupils at Co-op Academy Grove.

Matt Linley-Simon, the Academy Community Pioneer at Co-op Academy Friarswood, said: “The environmental garden at the school is a real focus point to engage pupils – and the community – around how we can all take meaningful steps to help and restore nature. Thanks to the volunteering day and Water Plus joining in, we now have a vibrant, welcoming and accessible space – that’s ready for pupils and provides a great space for wildlife and supporting biodiversity.”

Pioneers work in Co-op Academies to help to bring the community strategy to life; identifying the needs of the community and supporting these being met, with a particular focus on family support, youth work and building more bridges between local communities and schools.

Harmoniee Herrity, (pictured left) an Account Executive who works with large multi-site customers at Water Plus and took part in the volunteering action, said: “I really enjoyed getting involved and it was great seeing the impact and progress we made on sprucing up the environmental garden, providing an accessible space for all the school children.

“We know we can make a positive difference when we work closely with our customers – and achieve so much more together, as we did in this volunteering team-up. And just like actions that more and more businesses are taking to increase water-saving and water efficiency, this volunteering will help the environment through greater awareness about the importance of caring for natural resources, while building more connections between communities and nature.”

Co-op Academy Friarswood is a primary school with more than 200 pupils, from 3-year-olds to 11-year-olds. Two people from Water Plus completed the volunteering activity at the Newcastle-under-Lyme location, including improving access to a pathed route and pruning areas near the wildlife pond. 

Liz Garrity, Head of Community Development at Co-op Academies Trust worked with Water Plus on the volunteering day and met the Water Plus team.

She said: “By increasing access to learning spaces in nature, students can learn that sustainability action can involve easy and small steps and be shaped by them, and when these are added together they can make a big difference.

“By working with national partners like Water Plus we know we can make a really positive difference, as the volunteering shows, while helping to build a generation ready to help care for their communities and our planet.

“Thank you to the superb Water Plus volunteers for providing their time, great energy and putting their all into making the environmental garden at Co-op Academy Friarswood such a welcoming place for learning.”

Co-op Academies Trust has schools and colleges located across 4 regions.

There are 38 Co-op Academies with more than 21,000 students across primary, secondary, post-16 and special educational needs, with plans for more schools to join in the coming year.

Water Plus, which won a 2025 UK Customer Satisfaction Award for Sustainable Customer Service, works with organisations including schools, academies, universities and other the public sector sites and businesses, providing water retail services including customer service and account management, meter reading, billing, water-saving site audits and additional water tracking technology.

Its Be Wise On Water awareness and engagement initiative and collaborative approaches with customers has seen sites helped by Water Plus to save water, including:

• A school looking closer at its use, was helped to find the source of an increase in water use, which was adding to its running costs in 2026 – and was more noticeable when the school was closed at night. A constant flow into a cistern was causing additional unnecessary flushing, a visit booked through Water Plus to the school found in February 2026.

A faulty valve was replaced during the visit and the school was provided with additional advice on next steps to improve monitoring for issues to reduce additional cost risks and bring use down further, including installing a flow control device.

• Hundreds of other schools have also been helped to save water in 2026, in a large-scale approach by Water Plus that’s cutting thousands of pounds off wholesaler water costs.

Water Plus, which is also part of a Careers hub working with schools, provides an opportunity to do a paid day for volunteering for its staff each year, to drive more positive actions and support for communities.

More on the additional actions Water Plus is taking to help the environment, supporting projects preventing carbon emissions, increasing water efficiency and helping communities, at: www.water-plus.co.uk/about-us/corporate-social-responsibility-sustainability/ .

To find out more about Co-op Academy Friarswood, go to: https://www.friarswood.coopacademies.co.uk/

Additional information:

309 primary and secondary schools saving water, after Water Plus engaged the customers and water-saving visits took place from April 2025 to February 2026 in collaborative project. 170.32m3 (170,320 litres) estimated daily water saving (cutting more than £4,340 a day off wholesaler costs on water bills) across the schools. It would be enough to fill 680,000 cups of tea each day. Water saved is equal to 60.1kg CO2e a day fewer carbon emissions, showing how increasing water efficiencies can support decarbonisation goals (based on published conversion factors and assuming 95% Return to Sewer).