St Nicholas CE First School, West Midlands
What did the school want to achieve?
Earlier in the school year, St Nicholas CE First School Council and Eco Reps met to discuss ways that they felt the grounds of the school could be improved. They created a survey, which all their school children participated in, which came back with the resounding thought that the playground was in “dire need of improvement”.
One of the school’s Year 1 children independently designed her ideas for the playground, which included a road with a crossing and signs, so that they could practice crossing the road safely. Everyone at the school loved her ideas so much that it was decided that a roadway would be the centre of the new playground marking installation.
The school playground had very tired markings, that were over 10 years old and had faded with time. Lunchtime Lead, Shelley Lowe, said, “We also had the very stark reminder of the pandemic with lines drawn for spaced out lining up. We needed to replace them with something bright, eye-catching but also something that would inspire imaginative play.”
How did we help them achieve their desired outcome? Were there any problems, and how did we overcome them?
Once the PTFA had agreed a budget for the project, the school were tasked with contacting different companies to bid for the project. Lunchtime Lead, Shelley, explained, “this, however, was not as easy as it sounds. We experienced delays in response, astronomical quotes, companies pulling out of the project, providing designs that didn’t match our specifications… It became an arduous task until we contacted Fun Play! Immediately, we were reassured by Connor’s thorough approach and were encouraged by the amount of time we spent prior to making the final decisions of our new playground design.”
We worked with the school staff to bring their ideas to life and co-create the perfect playground plan for their school community. The final playground marking designs used included the much-loved roadway, a compass, a maths target with throw lines, a world map, a clock with minutes, two netball courts, and a mile a day track around the perimeter, marked out with multicoloured dots for children to follow.
Our comments on the finished playground
We really like how each activity is split up into the four sections of the roadway. It makes for clear play zones and reduces the risk of any accidents between children playing different games. The school now have so much variety and choice for children to participate in active outdoor play and learning, which is what we strive to achieve as a business. Plus, the markings can be used during both play time and lessons!
Testimonial from the school
“We could not rate the installation team higher! They were extremely professional, thoughtful and understanding of the needs of the school and managed to work around our busy morning drop-off and collection times. They also had many ideas about how to enhance the designs eg. to increase the size, colour and placement to increase the impact of the markings. They also had several ideas for future projects, that I have no doubt we will be asking them to install in the near future.
The playground markings have had such a positive impact on playtimes and lunchtimes. We have seen a vast increase in activity, particularly with the ‘Mile a Day’ markings. The structure of the playground has inspired many children to challenge themselves to run each day, increasing their distance. We have noticed that our SEN children are engaging in the ‘Mirror Me’ games and have been astounded at the imaginative ways that the children are using the world map (‘Which country do footballers come from?’ is my personal favourite.) The clear zoning of the sports areas has seen an increase in participation, but also a decrease in accidents, which is a ‘win win’ for us!
In summary, we can highly recommend this company for professional, prompt and trouble-free playground marking installation. We will be using them again!”
– S. Lowe, Lunchtime Lead
We were delighted to receive some fantastic feedback from the school children too:
Daria – Year 1 – Original designer of our roadway says, ‘It’s really good because it teaches the children to learn how to cross the road safely, but it’s also exciting and colourful!’
Alex – Year 3 – Previous reluctant runner – ‘I really like the Mile a Day markings, I try to run as far and as fast as I can, I’ve turned it into a Roblocks game in my head.’
Ranveer – Year 4 – Football enthusiast – ‘I really like the colourful courts for us to play in. Makes it easier to see where we can play.’