Falconers Hill Infant School, East Midlands
What did the school want to achieve?
After previously completing playground markings at Falconers Hill Infant School in Daventry last year, the school came back to us with a requirement for more markings. They had another area in which they wanted to create more outside academic learning opportunities as well as continuous physical opportunities. They wanted an engaging and vibrant learning area to create a safer, more organised outside provision with purposeful play.
How did we help them achieve their desired outcome? Were there any problems, and how did we overcome them?
Together with Falconers Hill Infants, we created different zones coloured green with methacrylate cold plastic (MMA), to allocate specific areas where different equipment and resources could be set up.
By using a roadway, it gives the children a specific area to use for that activity and the parking bays provide spaces to keep their bikes. Whilst the roadway allows for safety elements in general, it also teaches life skills and organisation. By using numbered parking bays here, it enhances opportunities for number matching and counting to help with numeracy. What’s more, the roadway signage extras enhance the school’s literacy provision.
The school also wanted to be able to carry out skills from the classroom in a large-scale way, so we installed a ten square playground marking and bespoke diagram to allow for this. The school can now use chalk to draw in the boxes and circles, making it easier to customise each lesson.
In addition to this, the school wanted to be able to encourage learning of phonics, as well as motivating children to be active. They wanted the activities to flow nicely through their playground, so we linked each marking with a trail station to give structure and direction. We used various stations from our safari trail to make a ‘jungle gym’ and created a ‘lazy river’ of phonics to match the theme, which would also over-mark an existing faded roadway the school had deemed not fit for purpose.
Our comments on the finished playground
We are so pleased with how the new, revamped playground at Falconers Hill looks, particularly the phonics pond. We really enjoyed working with the school to come up with innovative ideas to cover up their old roadway, and the end result is a much more appealing activity for their pupils. It’s been a pleasure to help create more opportunities for outdoor learning and structured play.
Testimonial from the school
“I wouldn’t hesitate to use this firm again. They were efficient, professional, and well-organised. During our consultation our ideas were listened to and documented in such a way that we were so pleased with our first design. A small alteration was required, and we went with our second design. This adaptation was made promptly, and communication was swift. We worked closely to get a date which suited both parties and works were completed within a matter of weeks. Thank you very much for transforming our outside area. This will now give us a wonderful canvas for further developments and improvements.”
– H. Hunt, Foundation Lead
