Best Playground Furniture For Schools
Updated on: October 23, 2024
Playgrounds should be welcoming, comfortable and enjoyable spaces for all. The best playground furniture for schools will help you balance energetic play with outdoor furnishings that promote relaxation, socialising, and outdoor learning.
It’s easy to forget the other things we want children to do outside as well as engage in high-energy play.
Why School Playground Furniture Helps To Improve Children’s Development and Health
Social Skills
Outdoor play is important for socialisation. It’s a prime time for children to interact with a range of peers to build the crucial communication, language, and interpersonal skills as well as self-esteem that are essential for every aspect of life.
Relaxation
Playground furniture for schools, such as ergonomic outdoor seating and activities for reflective play (a quieter type of play) are essential additions that help less confident pupils to interact with others with ease.
Playtimes are also a time for children to unwind and relax. The last thing we want pupils to do, is to return to the classroom wound up and un-focused.
Outdoor tables, seated areas for groups of children and tranquil zones furnished with plants help children to release pent up tension and return to the classroom refreshed.
Health
We want pupils to spend as much time as possible outside so decor such as bins, tilted tray trolleys and locked outdoor storage help to make playgrounds appealing and safe.
Spending time outside in the fresh air has been proven to reduce anxiety, boost our mood, improve our focus, and give us a more positive outlook.
Summarising the outcomes of many studies, Peter James, assistant professor from the Harvard School of Health’s Department of Environmental Health, highlights the fact that:
‘Natural settings are where we are meant to be’. ‘Biophilia’ is ‘our innate human instinct to connect with nature’ so it’s no surprise that being in nature helps you ‘recover from stress, improve your mental health and cognition’.
A clean and safe play space that’s properly furnished will enable children and staff to get so much more use from a playground so everyone can spend more time outside.
With a range of some of the most popular playground furniture in place, you’ll find your outdoor areas are easier for children and staff to use for a wider variety of both play and outdoor learning.
At the same time, a tidy playground that’s properly equipped with adequate storage and bins will help pupils learn vital life skills about how to keep a space clean.
Together, all these top playground furniture options make an outdoor area a practical and appealing place where all children want to be.
So, what should you look for when choosing outdoor school furniture?
How To Choose The Best Playground Furniture For Schools
Here at Fun & Active Playgrounds, we know how many requirements any playground furniture for schools must meet. We understand how much use the outdoor furniture you install needs to endure.
It’s one of the reasons why we spend so much time researching the materials we use for all our designs, including our outdoor school furniture.
As a leading supplier of children’s furniture to schools, parks, nurseries and other playspaces, our materials of choice for school playground furnishings offer superior weather-resistance and endurance.
In addition to robust playground decor pupils can use in all weather, our playground furniture has the safe edges, secure fittings and non-toxic finishings you need.
We also go the extra mile to give you as many high-performing eco-friendly options as we can, such as our recycled plastic picnic tables and benches.
Whilst we have plenty of neutral designs to ensure your playground decor complements more colourful playground equipment, we also offer school playground furniture with fun detailing children will enjoy, such as the Giraffe Animal Bench.
Let’s take a closer look at some of the most popular playground furniture for primary and schools as well as EYFS settings.
Best Playground Furniture For Schools
1. Outdoor Benches and Picnic Tables
A seat is the first thing we offer a visitor. By adding outdoor benches and seating to a playground, it instantly looks more inviting and familiar.
A playground is often the most visible part of any school. Every stakeholder, be they prospective parents, OFSTED inspectors or governors, will see your school playground before they see anything else.
Elegant yet child-friendly designs, such as our Barford Bench will help to enhance the look of your play spaces whilst promoting community cohesion.
Longer outdoor seating, such as the Barford Bench and outdoor picnic tables, are easy ways to successfully promote community cohesion.
How many of us have struck up a conversation with the stranger sitting next to us? Children do this even faster, so picnic tables and longer benches have long been one of the best types of playground furniture for primary schools.
2. Picnic Tabletop Games
Support the natural environments for socialisation that outdoor seating and tables create by adding tabletop games, so children have fun and stimulating outdoor activities to enjoy.
Our innovative tabletop games fit easily over any standard picnic table measuring 1500mm x 600mm.
With everything from games of logic, such as chess to world maps for discovery learning and town maps for imaginary play to choose from, pupils of any age can build a range of cognitive, social, and emotional skills as they play.
3. Locked Welly Storage
Whether they’ve been in the mud kitchen, local forest school or the school allotment, EYFS children often need to wear wellies.
Anyone who has been responsible for an under 5 playing in mud or wet places will know just how far their carefree, messy play goes.
Unless you want to incur the wrath of your premises officer and spend hours and days clearing mud from every surface, space-saving locked welly storage is a sensible purchase for EYFS settings.
4. Planters
We talked about the mental health benefits of spending time in nature earlier in the article, but planters allow children of any age to go one step further.
Our collection of planters are specifically designed for schools and children’s play spaces. They allow small groups of children to enjoy gardening together with ease.
Not only is gardening great for children’s mental health, interacting with nature helps us to develop greater respect and empathy for the world around us and the people in it.
The soothing actions of planting, watering, and tending to plants has wide appeal for pupils of all ages. As children dig, weed, rake and plant, they’ll also build vital gross and fine motor skills.
Visit our tree planting page to find out how you can receive free trees and create a fun hands-on practical lesson to inspire care for the natural world.
Browse our range of planters and other outdoor school furniture to find the perfect decor for your space.
Jess Sparks
Jess is deeply committed to supporting our mission of positively impacting UK outdoor play environments to promote healthy lifestyles in children.
With a CIM Level 6 Diploma in Sustainable Marketing, Jess channels her passion for sustainability into her marketing role, using her skills to promote eco-conscious practices and raise awareness for our initiatives.
Jess’ experience within the industry is instrumental in driving engagement and supporting connections with those who require ultra-durable, high-grade playground markings both locally and internationally.
