New Playforce playground inspires classroom newshounds!

It’s not every day that your school playground becomes part of daily lessons, but children and teachers at Tunstead Primary School in Norfolk saw the opportunity for a classroom topic based on ‘Our Adventure Playground’.  The project, featuring drawings, day by day accounts, photographs and interviews with the Playforce team is now proudly displayed in the school reception.

John Weston, the Head Teacher at Tunstead Primary, had a long term vision to rejuvenate the outdoor play area so that it would offer increasedrecreational and educational activity for the children.  Teachers and children had already done some fantastic work creating their own sensory garden, and only thing missing was a play area!

 John’s priorities for the new play area were the health and safety of the children, top quality in service and play value, and sustainability.  Most importantly, he wanted to work with people that understand the importance of children’s play and how it enriches their lives, helping them to grow and learn in a positive, interactive environment.  

Luckily, that’s exactly what we at Playforce believe, so we were delighted to be part of the project.

When I met with John, he said, ’we wanted to achieve a play area that offered the children a physical challenge and an area that the children could smile and be happy in.’

We all felt it was important that the children were at the heart of the project, so they worked with their teachers to find out how they wished to play in their new woodland den.  We then took away their ideas and produced a plan for an exciting timber trail that would delight and challenge the children every day. 

John commented, “The installation process went very smoothly and the equipment was installed exactly how the school wanted it. The installers were very friendly and took time out to answer questions that the children had”.

John and his team are really making the most of their school grounds – lessons are transformed when you take them outside, and children have so much fun, planting seeds, getting dirty and interacting with the world around them.

For us, it was great to see such involvement by the children – their classroom project is just brilliant and we’re thrilled that our designs could be a useful part of their work.  Above all, seeing the children so happy and active is the best outcome possible.