New Outdoor Playground keeps Kids Fit at Liwyn-Yr-Eos School
The pupils of one Aberystwyth school arrive early and don't want to go home since the installation of their new Playforce playground equipment.
Wiltshire-based Playforce, the UK's premier provider of playground equipment, recently fitted an exciting array of timber trail obstacles at Llwyn-yr-Eos school as part of a project organised by Ceredigion Local Education Authority and paid for by a Big Lottery Fund grant.
"It's brilliant," said deputy head of Llwyn-yr-Eos school, Chris Bowen. "The children absolutely love it. They come early to play on it before school and we can't get rid of them at the end of the day because they're on it again. There isn't a playtime when it's not being used."
Mr Bowen explained that Playforce, which prides itself on the ability to design outdoor playground play areas that stimulate children's imaginations at the same time as stretching their muscles, installed a timber trail that includes a rope bridge, a Burma bridge, a balancing beam, a rope traverse and a climbing wall.
All these obstacles are specifically deigned to encourage physical and mental development as well as improving social skills.
"It does so much more than exercise the children," said Mr Bowen. "They are learning patience, taking turns and helping each other.
"Playforce were amazing, they gave excellent advice, they were quick, obliging and caused minimum disruption. They just got on and did the job."
Not only is the new outdoor play equipment available for pupils who attend the school, children from the surrounding community are also able to enjoy it out of school hours.
Llwyn-yr-Eos school is just one of eight schools in the Ceredigion area to benefit from the playground equipment project, which came principally from a Big Lottery Fund grant as part of the New Opportunities Fund for PE and Sport in Schools in Wales and the outdoor play equipment Improvement for Primary Schools. The LEA and each school involved in the project also contributed to the cost.
