Your best ideas for primary school playground

[Hathor]

Primary school is planning to redesign the playground. What do your primary-age children enjoy most in their playgrounds? Any ideas from your own school times?

I enjoyed lots of running around space on the tarmac and field and a wall to play ball games against, tennis balls and skipping ropes, but that is all we had.

At my old school we were allowed bikes, skateboards and rollerblades, and had ramps and walls to jump off!

Some ride on toys would be safer

Leave the playground alone. Let the kids run and play football. Stop putting contraptions in their way.

Hi Hathor,

Playground equipment has come a long way in the last few years. If you're looking for ideas for primary schools, then there is a local company I know that have designed a new range of wooden climbing systems that use innovative wooden beams to create a larger climbing area than you will find elsewhere for the same price.

They are called Scatterlogs, because of the layout of the wooden logs in the climbing frame - Playground Equipment . If you look at the mesh climbing area, it is also made to last and less expensive to repair and maintain than similar systems.

Hope that helps someone.

Mark

www.playgardens.co.uk/fixed-equipment-type.asp?id=13
www.playgardens.co.uk/fixed-product.asp?id=211
www.playgardens.co.uk/fixed-product.asp?id=239

www.playgardens.co.uk/fixed-equipment-type.asp?id=11
www.timberplay.com/Data/Ware_Downloads/Natural%20Playground%20Features%20Table.pdf
www.timberplay.com/case-study.asp?id=18

There are new playground designs that don't have as much fixed equipment, but more loose parts and extra tools and bits and pieces. This article talks about them: www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/07/05/100705fa_fact_mead (you have to purchase the full article but the abstract gives you a good idea of what they're talking about). These sorts of playgrounds sound amazing to me but I can see that it might be a hard sell as it's not what people are used to.

Goal posts and skipping ropes.

Very little in our playground is used in the same way by all ages.

There is a "trim Trail" and painted skills trail, but these do not get used as trails, teh trim trail elements get used as climbing features/ shop counters/ beds/ posts to tie captives too etc.
Our kids are given access to a stash of playground toys ,Key stage 2 children seem to be VERY god at mis using equipment to the point of breakage.
Hoops are no longer round, Frisbees are on the roof, skipping ropes all knotted together. They a have been playing with but not looking after IYSWIM so after a week or two of term it all looks a bit shabby. Buy the end of term a lot of toys have been broken beyond repair and have had to be binned.

Can't have bats n balls out now as certain children use them as weapons OR as spades to dig large holes in the grass area and throw mud at each other and parked cars.

IF we had enough space - a dedicated ball games enclosure would be nice, So would more benches with tables and shelter. So would better visibility so lunchtime staff CAN see what all the children are up to with no hidden corners for mischief.

Does your school have a school council who could be involved with designing the new playground.

The one I would add would be to include with in your budget some shaded/sheltered areas.

Quiet area with seating, something to climb and balance on. Some way of segregating football from everything else. Skipping ropes.

A school I went to look round had the most amazing playspace for the youngest boys. There was a big area with 'building' materials like wooden blocks, pallets and tyres. Also, if I recall, a sandpit and vegetable growing plots. The play area very nearly sold the whole school to me!

MollieO would be able to give you a better description of it as she knows it quite well!

I think the most important thing is that the equipment can be used in lots of different ways according to the children's interests and imagination, otherwise it quickly becomes stale.

At the school I went to as a child there was a privet hedge with gaps in along a bank in the middle of the field. It could be so many things, from the middle of a chariot race track to a place to sit in the shade and chat, to a place to tie up your imaginary pony for grooming! One summer term it was a line of shops all of which took privet leaves as currency!!

Games painted on the floor are brilliant and cheap - plus can be used/ignored and the space used for free play!
Hopscotch, long wiggly snakes, that sort of thing!

We are coming to the end of our redesign which has happened over a couple of phases. This will be controlled by your GB who hold the purse strings WEG

We put it out to tender with a number of firms... discounted those that came back with here's our catalogue, go choose. Bought in three who could create a bespoke playground for the needs of our children and chose one... it was the most expensive but it is worth every penny.

Once they were in, consultation with various stakeholder groups started in earnest, pupils, staff, parents and particularly MMSs. We took teams on visits to other schools to see what they had and what was fun to use. I have been particularly lucky as one of our governors is an architect and another is a senior lawyer who lent us a Project Manager to help us drive down costs and gave the Head a crash course in negotiation.

We retarmaced the playground... great fun as is sits above bombed out London cellars! We now have an outdoor cloakroom for sweaters, coats and lunch boxes, performance stage (think decking with attitude), a walk way around the playground, sensory garden (pre-existing but improved) discrete football zone, climbing wall, painted games area, chalk walls and despite the protests of the MMSs and sand play area.

We are not a leafy suburb but an East London school who planned and saved for this... and I am so glad that the biggest item I ever signed off is going to be used for fun and will last for a good many years to come. :)

Okay I dug out that Scatterlog climbing frame I was on about. The one with the mesh for climbing on. This keeps costs down apparently and lasts longer, less to maintain.

I also noticed these playground design case studies that might help anyone trying to get some ideas.

Hope that helps. I'm thinking of learning more about this for the local parish council here in York and maybe doing some fundraising.

Our climbing frame (log built thingdy with slide) was falling apart and never had been great, as the logs were slippery in winter.

We fund-raised and got lottery funding for a new Lappset one, similar to the one in the link, although ours is a bit larger, has a slide and sensory activities, plus a separate smaller frame and bouncy thing for the LOs.

www.lappset.co.uk/Products/Product_search/Product_card.iw3?prodID=120650M

It has been massively popular, the kids helped design it and they love it, there is a rota for using it at playtimes. The monkey bars are the most used bit.

It's also used by the community at weekend and holidays, so has become a meeting spot.

We are gradually re-vamping our playground/ playing field, and have added outdoor games tables ( ludo/chess/snakes and ladders painted on, and also different sized tyres dug into the ground for the kids to play on/in/around, they are VERY popular! We did ask the kids opinions as to what they wanted, and had chosen a about 12 items for them to choose from, and had a vote as to which 4/5 of those items were the most popular, and it has given the kids some degree of "ownership" of their playground space.

Hi bubby64,

Which 4 or 5 items did they choose and what was the starting list of 12?
Did you find that certain types of playground equipment were a bad idea, or that it was difficult to get impartial advice on the playground?

They chose a climbing wall and rope net thing (added on to the wooden playframe already there) asymetrical bars seperate from the play frame, we have always got kids hanging upside down on those! tThe games tables, the tyres and, surprisingly enough, a shaded bench seating area with a slightly raised "stage".
We got our playground supervisors to look up things in various brochures to see what they thought the kids would like, with a total budget in mind, then went from there.

We did keep in mind that we had already re-vamped the early years area, and so the choice of the new equipment was mostly from the KS2 kids.

I haven't read whole thread but heartily recommend that you consult Learning Through Landscapes (google it and you'll get their website) for low cost solutions to natural, educational play. They will come and consult for you too.