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.
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.
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.
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.
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