A Place of Delight for New Outdoor Playground at Brynteg Primary School
Every school has its own particular needs, desires, and aspirations. For Brynteg County Primary School near Wrexham in North Wales, the challenge was to transform a small, under-utilised part of its outdoor playground into a place of delight for its pupils.
After seeing an advertisement in a magazine, the school approached Playforce with a keen sense of expectation. They didn't precisely know what they wanted to do with the space they had, and were keen to explore with us the range of possibilities before them.
Although Brynteg is a large school, the amount of space available for the playground equipment was very restricted and difficult to work. As Michelle Pow of Playforce states:
"Most other companies who had quoted for the work refused to quote for the grass area because it involved installing into a mound. However, liking a challenge, we decided to go for it."
Crystallizing the thoughts and desires of over 150 children and staff is never an easy process, but working with the staff, Playforce was able to fix upon the 'Transport' theme that inspired so many of the ideas presented.
Seeing the excitement that the thought of the new outdoor playground environment was generating in the school, we decided to produce a bespoke childrens play equipment development with a train and a station platform at its centre. We were delighted to be able to provide this bespoke service and the children rose to the challenge we presented them by designing the station area themselves.
Although space was at a premium, and we focused only on low level activities, we were pleased with the results particularly as the final outdoor playground design had the capacity to cater for between 20-25 children playing at the same time.
Once the play environment was completed, the staff and pupils of the school soon began to reap the benefits.
The staff were delighted to see how the playground equipment helped promote the children's role-playing, communication, and social skills. Parents quickly saw how the brightly coloured playground equipment had a positive visual impact upon the school ground environment. And, perhaps most importantly, the pupils thoroughly enjoyed exploring the imaginative space that the outdoor playground environment provided.
As Mr D. Ifrans, the head teacher of Brynteg, states:
"All the pupils are delighted with the new equipment, as it enables them to be active during playtimes - encouraging physical fitness, whilst having great fun"
The outdoor playground environment created by Playforce at Brynteg illustrates that with a little imagination and a lot of hard work even a small space can be transformed into a genuinely positive asset for the staff, parents, and, of course, the children.
Brynteg will enjoy many years exploiting the benefits provided by its new playground equipment. We wish them well.
