The Brief: The Head Teacher, Mr Stuart Merry, wanted to create a completely new playground at the back of the school, which would extend from the building into the open field beyond .The new play area needed to be creative and challenging for the children, providing them with a variety of activity and play opportunities and being easy to supervise. Whilst providing secure boundary fencing, it was also important that the open feel and aspect of the grounds be maintained and that the whole look was sympathetic to the rural setting.

The Proposal: Outdoor & Play worked closely with the Head with several site visits to survey and measure, before submitting architect plan drawings to accurately convey the proposed scheme.

Lynne Roberts of Outdoor & Play says: “The scope of the works was considerable as it involved creating the space from the beginning and not just adding to an existing playground. The biggest challenge was to eliminate the steep gradient and frequent changes of level in order to create usable areas of level play space. In addition there were existing permanent features which had to be incorporated into the scheme: once these issues were solved, the rest of the playground could be designed around key activity zones.”

The Job: Work started with preparation of the site involving demolition of a stone wall to existing walkway level, and the creation of an upper terrace. The retaining wall was used to create a recessed seating area before the site was levelled.

The area was then landscaped ready for work to begin on the building and installation of:

• Low level balancing apparatus
• Quiet seating areas
• Performance area with stage
• Enclosed sports area with timber ball wall
• Log den with stump seats

Finally the whole playground was soft landscaped, both inside and outside the boundary fence to create areas of colour and shelter.

Commenting on the new playground, Head Stuart Merry said:

“I chose Outdoor & Play because their ideas were the most creative we received: I felt their scheme would provide challenging play opportunities for the children. Their work has been extremely thorough, they were helpful at all times and no pressure was applied at the design and quote stage. The playground has been a great success and at great value to Emley First School.”//Stuart Merry – Headteacher