GREEN fingered students at the Budehaven Area Resource Base (ARB) were delighted to receive £13,500 of funding from a children’s charity to help towards the redesign of their garden space.

Budehaven ARB is a specialist provision that offers support to children with complex special educational needs and disabilities.

One of the areas that needed developing was their garden area, it was in need of a complete makeover ensuring all students could access the area and be provided with more outside opportunities and experiences.

The ARB applied to children’s charity the Wooden Spoon to help fund the redesign of their garden area and provide better access for their students. The Wooden Spoon is a children’s charity of rugby, funding life-changing projects across the UK and Ireland to improve the lives of disadvantaged young people.

Rachael Slater, Budehaven ARB centre co-ordinator, said: “After a successful application process, we were delighted to be awarded £13,500 from the Wooden Spoon charity, the funding went to relevelling the garden, new sensory equipment and the installation of a drop curb to allow wheelchair access. The garden took six weeks to be completed and members of the local community helped with the finishing touches.”

The formal garden opening was held on Thursday, October 21, and was attended by parents, students, staff and also by representatives of the Wooden Spoon charity John Sumnal, Alan Milliner and Phil Pemble.

After some emotional speeches from Wooden Spoon the students read out some poetry describing what the garden means to them. Guests then retired indoors for afternoon tea, with cakes, biscuits and cream teas made by the children at the ARB.

Rachel added: “Bude ARB would also like to thank Ian Kirby for completing the ground and structured work and also to Connor Jackson and his father from CJ Turf for the donation and delivery of the turf which gave the garden and instant finished look.”