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Archives for December 2021

December 16, 2021

A reflection on 2021

We’ve had our challenges like many others this year but as 2021 comes to an end, we wanted to look back on some of our highlights and celebrate our achievements at Fun & Active Playgrounds. Read on as we reflect on 2021!

5 winning schools were made very happy

We gave away some awesome prizes and made 5 winning schools very happy, including Elson Infant School, Locks Heath Infant School, Southampton Hospital School, Perry Court E-ACT Academy and Marlpool Infant School.

In January, we launched a competition on our social pages to win a free Active Trail playground marking and after it’s popularity, decided to give another two away in March and April. Following that, we upped our prize and put two whopping Silver Sports Packages up for grabs in June and July to help schools start the next academic year with a £3,000 playground transformation.

Locks-Heath-Infant-School (3) Southampton-Hospital-School-Active-Trail (2)

We planted 50 trees

We contributed to planting a total of 50 trees with the help of Carbon Footprint to offset our carbon emissions. This has also helped to fund an important VCS approved project in Brazil to prevent deforestation in the Amazon Rainforest. The Amazon is the largest remaining rainforest in the world, known for its amazing biodiversity; containing at least 10% of all species – many of them endangered.

Our trees were planted here in the UK through Carbon Footprint’s tree planting programme and will contribute to protecting habitats and maintaining biodiversity. We will continue this initiative next year and schools are still able to get involved by applying for free trees to be planted at their site! You can register your interest with us for a fantastic hands-on, educational activity.

Tree-Planting Tree Planting

Katie completed her qualification

Our fabulous Graphic Designer, Katie, completed her Level 3 Junior Creative Producer qualification and was awarded Outstanding Contribution to the Workplace!

Katie joined us as an apprentice graphic designer in June 2019 and ever since had been studying for her qualification, visiting college one day a week. After passing the course early this year, Havant and South Downs College also awarded Katie with Outstanding Contribution to the Workplace.

Katie

Our Managing Director, Dave Bailey, said: “Katie is nothing short of amazing, she has exceeded all expectations and continues to impress us. Katie came to us at the beginning of the year and asked for a meeting. Over her time off she had conducted an audit on our social media and made a comparison to our competitors…

“Fast forward to the end of the year, Katie looked after our social media for 9 months unaided, sometimes creating weeks at a time to support the company during lockdown and on minimum hours. Katie now supports our marketing manager Jess with design and content.

“Katie has made herself an integral part of our team and we are so happy we took the decision to take her as an apprentice.”

We won two awards

In September, we won not one but two awards in the Southern Enterprise Awards 2021 – for Leading Provider of Thermoplastic Playground Markings and Customer Service Excellence! We were over the moon to receive these awards after such a challenging year and to be recognised as an industry market leader and innovator for playground markings for schools and other sectors.

Rayne-Primary-School-Race-Trail-Playground-Marking Hopscotch-Playground-Marking

We wouldn’t have been able to do any of this without our amazing team, fabulous customers and followers so a huge thank you to you all. We hope to make many more achievements in 2022!

 

Read more of our blogs:

How children benefit from creative play

Tennis court markings for your playground

Games to promote fun and learning in your playground

Filed Under: Company news

December 14, 2021

How Children Benefit from Creative Play

Creative play, or as it is also known ‘imaginative’ and ‘role’ play, is one of the best and most beneficial ways in which children can improve their imagination, stimulate creativity, and just invent their own little world. Imaginative play has a highly important role in every child’s development. Children love to dream about fantasy worlds, fairy castles, and many different scenarios involving their favourite characters, movies, or fairy tales. Imagination is just as important as physical and educational activities, and similarly to these, imagination can also be enhanced with some interesting equipment and additions such as thermoplastic playground markings.

St-Pauls-C-of-E-VC-Juniors-World-Map-Playground-Marking (2) Pirate-Maze-Playground-Marking
We have highlighted some of the benefits that creative play brings with it so let’s get to it!

Imagination is the key to solving problems

Imaginative play is something that highly stimulates the mind as it gives children the amazing chance to experience new and different sensations, emotions, and scenarios. It allows children to see things and make decisions from many different points of view, which is highly important for their growth. Such play helps develop empathy, creativity, and problem-solving skills.

The possibilities are endless, whether they want to be a doctor, princess, policeman or any other job in the world, children have the means to experience what it is like. Many children choose their future professions and base their dreams exactly on what they have experienced and imagined during creative play. Imagination plays a vital role in letting the young people of the future experience the world around them and learn what it is like to take responsibility, even if it is just a game.

Freemantle-Academy-Jurassic-Phonics-Playground-Marking Whitgreave-Primary-School-Under-the-Sea-Phonics-Playground-Marking-West-Midlands

Physical and emotional development

One of the many awesome things of creative play is that it helps children enhance both their physical and emotional skills. It gives them the chance to experience both positive and negative emotions and gives them the possibility to form and develop their very own coping mechanism, without being suffocated by any stress that comes with reality. Since it is just a game, the disappointment and negativity is not as heavy as it would be in reality, which in turn let’s children think about the situation that has occurred without being too worried.

While imaginary play may not be as highly intensive as sports and active play, it is also beneficial for children’s physical health. It helps them improve their hand-eye coordination and their physique in general as there is often a lot of running around included.

St-Peters-Hall-Rocket-Twin-Hopscotch-Playground-Marking St-Peters-C-of-E-Primary-School-Roadway-Playground-Marking

Many of our playground markings can be used to assist imaginative and creative play at school so why not take a look at our wide range of designs!

 

Check out more of our blogs:

Tennis Court Markings for your playground

Games to promote fun and learning in your playground

Festive games to play in the playground

Filed Under: Company news

December 6, 2021

Tennis Court Markings for your playground

Court markings have quickly and easily become one of the most desirable playground markings for primary schools! The opportunity to play a well-known sport, enjoyed by many, tempts children to join the fun in no time!

When it comes to sports court markings, we make sure to exceed expectations when it comes to design, material, and overall quality. By choosing us, you not only choose long-lasting and eye-catching markings, but you also choose something that is proven to be good for both your pupils and the environment too.

We always use only the best thermoplastic materials on the market. It’s anti-slip so children can play without any worries, non-toxic with no lead or chromates, and it lasts up to 10 times longer than paint!

Sports-Court-Playground-Marking Sports Coating

Why Tennis Court Markings?

Tennis is one of todays’ modern games that has managed to earn a great amount of popularity amongst children and adults. Kids love watching as well as playing it, and dream to be like their favourite tennis players.

It’s a game that requires a lot of movement and precision, so it helps children to always keep their mind sharp and improve their reaction time.

When it comes to developing physical abilities, tennis is one of the best options! It enhances bone density, metabolic function, and helps with lowering blood pressure.

Playing tennis is proven to help with mental alertness, and tactical and critical thinking, by making connections in the brain. It is a great way for children to relieve stress and get in a better mood. It not only puts a smile on their faces, but also stimulates the brain to produce more serotonin, otherwise known as the hormone of happiness which is vital for better sleep, a healthy emotional state, and prevention of depression and anxiety.

Playing tennis also helps young people increase their self-esteem and have a better self-value as it improves both their mental state and physical fitness! Improving muscle tone, burning fat, and developing hand-eye coordination is something that tennis is known best for.

What’s more, tennis can help with socialising. It motivates students to spend more time outside playing and meeting new friends as they play in different pairs – an amazing way to stimulate social interaction and overcome anxiety.

Young-boy-playing-tennis-at-a-clay-court (1) DBD-Play-Court-Playground-Marking

Our Tennis Court Markings

Our tennis court line markings come in 18 different colours. Traditionally in white with a red centre line, but you have the choice between an array of bright and bold colours. You could even choose the colour to match your school logo.

Why not make your tennis court pop even more by choosing to use our sports coating too? These bright colours can really make the sports court look inviting for pupils and is something different to tarmac. Not to mention it’s slip-resistant and safe for all weathers.

Contact us if you want to know more about our tennis court markings or any other playground markings. We are here to help you and answer any questions that you may have!

 

Read more of our blogs:

Games to promote fun and learning in your playground

Festive games to play in the playground

Ideas for Playground Markings for Secondary Schools

Filed Under: Company news

December 3, 2021

Games to promote fun and learning in your playground

Why are playground games so important?

Playground games allow your students to blow off some steam, which reduces stress and gives them the opportunity to engage in an active lifestyle. Having permanent markings on your playground – like our pre-formed thermoplastic playground markings – means that you won’t have to set up games every time you want to play one, and you can also use them to entertain the children during their break times. Our playground markings also last up to ten times longer than paint so you can count on them being there for a long time.

Best games for playgrounds

Court sports

Court sports like tennis, football, basketball and netball, are fantastic for encouraging some healthy competition, as well as improving co-ordination and agility. Your students can really get their hearts pumping while playing and it will contribute to their weekly exercise. Students who discover an aptitude for these sports may find that they can take them to a professional level or gain entry to educational institutions.

Sebert-Wood-Primary-Basketball-Court-Playground-Marking DBD-Play-Court-Playground-Marking

Target games

Target games like a large darts playground marking will improve their aim and also give them a subtle way to practise their numerical skills when they add up all their throws. A maths target board can also be used to improve aim if a student is trying for a particular number – but more importantly, if they land on a different number and instruction each time, they will get a good mental workout too.

Tadley-Primary-School-Dartboard-Playground-Marking Perton-Primary-Academy-Maths-Target-Playground-Marking

Teacher or student-led activities

You can really work on concentration, comprehension and mobility with games like Dance with Me and Mirror Me, where students will be copying the teacher. You can even mix it up by having a student lead the actions and rotate round so everyone gets a go. It will be interesting to see what kind of creative movements they come up with and could help shyer pupils when they have seen others do it before them.

Singleton-CE-Primary-School-Mirror-Me-Playground-Marking Tadley-Primary-School-Dance-With-Me-Playground-Marking

This category could also include games like Duck, Duck, Goose or What’s the Time, Mr. Wolf? as the students will be leading the interaction in the games.

Locks-Heath-Infant-School (1) Locks-Heath-Infant-School-Mr-Wolf-Playground-Marking

Puzzles and lessons

Teach the children valuable skills like how to tell the time and compass directions with a Smiley Compass Clock, and once they’ve absorbed that, send them on a round-the-world trip with our World Map playground marking. Ask the children questions about the places on the map, where they’ve been, where they’d like to go and what they know about the areas.

St-Pauls-C-of-E-VC-Juniors-World-Map-Playground-Marking (2) Smiley-Compass-Clock-Playground-Marking

Bright colours are great for holding children’s attention so take advantage of that and use bright playground markings with fun characters like elephants to teach them phonics, a colourful maze for teaching maths skills, or a multi-entrance maze to help with problem solving.

Elephant Phonics Sebert-Wood-Primary-Circular-Maze-Playground-Marking

For more information about our playground markings and how we can help you achieve an amazing play area that will wow your students, get in touch today.

 

Read more of our blogs:

Festive games to play in the playground

Ideas for Playground Markings for Secondary Schools

Boost physical activity by moving a mile a day

Filed Under: Company news

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Fun & Active Playgrounds
H5 Daedalus Park
Solent Enterprise Zone
Lee-on-the-Solent
Hampshire
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