Spencer Group buys 200 water bottles for Hull primary school after safeguarding lead's request

Spencer Group, the Hull engineering and construction company, has donated 200 reusable water bottles to Longhill Primary School after the school said some pupils were arriving without their own and its stock of spares was running low.

The request came from Tracy Jones, the school's Deputy Designated Safeguarding Lead, who contacted Spencer Group's Group Marketing Director Dan Wilson earlier in the summer to ask whether the company had any bottles left over from previous events, the company said.

Rather than hand over surplus stock, Spencer Group bought 200 new bottles, supplying 50 in each of the school's four house colours of red, blue, yellow and green.

Charlie Spencer OBE, the company's founder and Executive Chairman, said: "When we heard that some of the children didn't have their own water bottles, it seemed like a simple way we could make a difference."

The handover

Charlie Spencer visited the school to hand the bottles to Assistant Headteacher Mrs Deakin, with a group of pupils joining them to say thank you. The children had made a thank-you poster for him.

He said: "Schools do a fantastic job, often with limited resources, and if we can help make their day-to-day lives a little easier, then we're very happy to do so."

In a statement carried in the company's announcement, the school said it was grateful for the donation and that supplying the bottles in house colours made them more special.

Longhill Primary School is an academy converter within Hull Collaborative Academy Trust, based on Shannon Road on the Longhill Estate in Hull, according to the Department for Education's Get Information about Schools register. The register lists its headteacher as Jaime Pearce.

Background

Spencer Group describes itself as one of the UK's largest privately owned multidisciplinary engineering businesses, designing and building projects in the transport, infrastructure and energy sectors.

The company has a long-standing link with education in the city. It says it is a Founding Partner of Ron Dearing University Technical College (UTC) in Hull, and the UTC describes Charlie Spencer as its Founding Chair of Governors.

Ron Dearing UTC opened in September 2017 and has since taken more than 2,000 students, the school said in an article marking its partnership with local employers. It names its Founding Partners as KCOM, Reckitt, Siemens Gamesa, Smith+Nephew and Spencer Group, with the University of Hull as lead education partner.

Spencer Group works with UTC students from Year 10 onwards and runs a work experience programme, according to its own page on the school. The company says it has employed more than 50 apprentices from the UTC since it opened; the UTC's article put the figure at more than 60.

The company has also described other community activity. In an article on its website it said it had connected with two schools near one of its projects, offering work experience and "ask an engineer" question-and-answer sessions, and that staff had raised more than £6,500 for its Charity of the Year.

Spencer Group said it continues to support education, apprenticeships and community initiatives across the region.