Garlinge Primary School and Nursery

“From the early stages all the staff have been extremely helpful to assist us with our needs and work within our time scales. We will definitely be using again 10/10!” L. Newing – Business Manager

What were the reasons for developing your outdoor space?
Garlinge Primary School wanted to make use of the open grass space to improve the children’s opportunities to engage in physical, active and social play at break times. The equipment needs to have a modern appearance to inspire the children to use it, whilst at the same time blending in with the natural and rural surroundings.

How we transformed the play area to provide outdoor learning opportunities for the children:
Our Linear Adventure Trail Configuration worked perfectly within the rectangular area. A mixture of balancing, traversing and climbing units were installed to offer many different choices and styles of active play. To bring the modern feel to the new play area we added one of our new Forest Climber units. They consist of a scattered log design with a base net and hand ropes to create many different levels of balancing and climbing. All of the equipment installed is made using locally sourced timber making it look right at home within the natural setting.

How the children will benefit from the new play area:
There is no structured way of using the Forest Climber units so the children are encouraged to make their own choices and explore their own sense of risk. Co-operation will be tested when there are a few children on the beams at the same time. Every element of the Forest Climber is designed to improve upper and lower body strength whilst inspiring the children to keep active by exploring its varying levels time and time again. The Linear Adventure Trail offers many different challenges from each unit to the next. Traversing across the low level units will help improve the children’s sense of balance and coordination.