How To Choose A School Playground That Will Provide The Best Long-Term Investment

After considering the type of play best suited to pupils and the design which best lets them access it, the next step in providing children with an optimal playground for their needs is to focus on the durability of potential equipment.

Installing a new outdoor play area is a costly endeavour, and with the future of funding looking increasingly challenging, it is vital to choose a set-up that delivers maximum value for money by providing longevity.

By following these five factors of consideration when creating an outdoor play area, schools will be guaranteed to get the most from their new playground.

• Consider communicating school confidence with an impressive centrepiece
• Consider the outdoor play equipment children will love the most
• Consider high-quality, long-lasting materials
• Consider taking a phased approach to future-proofing the playground
• Consider using a service which can deliver regular maintenance checks

Consider Communicating School Confidence With An Impressive Centrepiece

A star attraction at the heart of the play area goes a long way to making children feel that their frequent play space is special – and that their school is a strong, confident institution worth taking pride in!

Just like the Cinderella Castle at Disney’s Magic Kingdom, an iconic landmark helps children to immediately identify a place and the ideas behind it. In order to get the full value of spending on a project, the end result needs to demand attention, and in turn, interest. Although children will always be drawn in by the novelty of a new play area, to ensure continued use it needs the ‘wow’ factor of a memorable feature.

Ideally, an iconic landmark should ooze charisma (a huge pirate ship, a fortress or a dinosaur slide for instance), but even on limited budgets the effect can be achieved by anything with height or colour (such as a tower with a slide).

Long-term, the benefit of making a play area appeal to more users is that it encourages socialising in the vicinity – children practising social abilities while engaging their imaginations and developing tact, diplomacy, and teamwork skills. Essentially, a centralised zone in a playground promotes a sense of community among youngsters much like how a town clock draws together a sense of community.

Choosing outdoor play equipment that blends into its’ environment is a popular approach for a successful long-term aesthetic. While timber is a great material for conveying that ‘natural’ feel, for a truly spectacular looking playground an eye should also be cast towards incorporating some of the school’s logo colours, too. Either way, the most important idea here is to build something with a striking visual element – For longevity, create a great space, not a grey space!

Consider The Outdoor Play Equipment Children Will Love The Most

A play area full of children who aren’t engaging with equipment is a sad sight to behold. While choosing equipment for its’ ability to progress certain skills is important, it is also vital that children find the available options appealing.

When it comes to getting maximum value from a budget, it is best to choose the equipment that will get the most play.

However, when it comes to securing the longevity of a play area, it is also best to choose the simplest equipment possible – the less complicated they are, the less there is that can go wrong.

Balancing these two factors can be difficult when deciding on which items a playground should include, as different equipment draws in users to differing degrees. Fortunately, some findings by the National Study Of Playgrounds can help guide us towards choosing the most popular ones:

TOWERS: ‘Playgrounds with tall towers have 17% more users for each additional tower’

CLIMBERS: ‘Each climber adds 4% more users, 6% longer stay time’

SPINNERS: ‘Playgrounds with spinners have 31% longer stay time’

While it’s good to know which items children like to play with the most, the real focus here is on variety. Play areas with a wider range of activities offer more opportunities to maintain children’s interest. Taking into account the ages and abilities of the children who will be using the equipment will help in choosing the best possible facilities for their needs.

‘As the name implies, Creative Play love to get innovative and try new avenues of design’ says our Outdoor Play Expert Tim Broster, ‘however experimenting with new concepts isn’t always easy when budgets are tight. To guarantee children of all ages, sizes and abilities can enjoy an installation built on limited funds, we fall back on our 30+ years of experience to recommend several “tried and tested” playground layouts proven to satisfy even the most diverse groups of children’.

Consider High-Quality, Long-Lasting Materials   

Safety Surfacing (BSEN 1177): Child safety is paramount when it comes to playgrounds, and nothing is more important in ensuring their safety than the surfacing that the equipment stands on. There are a variety of groundwork options available to accommodate a range of needs and budgets, but overall, what mostly influences how to make surfacing suitable is the height of the equipment – the taller they are, the deeper the safety surfacing needs to be.

Safety standards: Keep in mind when considering durable materials for playgrounds that equipment also needs to meet the standards set out by outdoor play area safety consultants and inspectors The Play Inspection Company and be accredited by the Register of Play Inspectors International for the specifications set out by BSEN1176.

Panelling: British weather, as well as some children, can really take a toll on outdoor play equipment, and panelling in particular. In the face of such rigorous extremities and daily use, robust and durable materials are essential for the longevity of a play area. Creative Play have discovered that the best material for panelling to endure is a high-spec, extruded polyethylene Playtec, a substance that doesn’t delaminate, and is unaffected by moisture.

80% recycled UV boards, they don’t fade in the sunshine either, a regular problem for inferior materials.

Ropes: Many pieces of outdoor play equipment contain rope, which if not assembled correctly can prove hazardous. Observing safety standards for rope is of the utmost importance, and that begins with the manufacture of the material itself – all rope used in children’s play equipment needs to be able to endure the stress of a 9000 kg load by being steel reinforced and made of a six strand multi-filament secured by hydraulically pressed, tamper-proof end connections.

Timber: There is an increasing need to make sure that sustainable materials are chosen whenever possible. The primary material used by Creative Play is wood, all of which is from Forest Stewardship Council approved suppliers and is pressure treated with chrome-free and arsenic-free preservative.

Anti-Vandal Devices: It may not be a common occurrence, but vandalism on school property is always a possibility. Many Creative Play outdoor equipment fixtures are covered with devices which prevent tampering – so teachers can rest assured that when pupils run out into the yard and start climbing the equipment, it is safe to do so.

Consider Taking A Phased Approach To Future-Proof The Playground

Perhaps not immediately obvious, but the space to be occupied by playground equipment is up for just as much scrutiny as any other facet of safety. Key areas of concern include:

• The immediate area to be occupied by the equipment (needs to meet minimum area standards)
• Both the horizontal and vertical free space required around the equipment
• Potential falling space (measured from the highest point of the equipment to be used under normal circumstances)

Measuring space is always best done by an outdoor play area specialist, as it should to conform to British and European Safety Standards (BSEN 1176).

Safety reasons aside, correct use of space can potentially save thousands of pounds in future. While it might be tempting to simply take a large, colourful item and place it at the centre of the available area as an impressive focal point, it is worth considering other options for placement too. By allowing a Creative Play expert to design a play area, future digging and installation costs can be radically reduced by planning with an eye on potential expansion.

Employing our ‘phased’ approach to playground layout, the area can easily be widened whenever more funding becomes available. This is achievable by our exclusive, innovative modular Jigsaw equipment designs, which welcome additions to be made to a playground by over 100 other components at any later, convenient time.

Our range of trim trails also offer this benefit. As such, any playground created with one of these play items, no matter the budget, is taking a potential first step to becoming the ultimate outdoor fun area.

Consider Using A Service Which Can Deliver Regular Maintenance Checks

The best possible way to ensure the longevity of a playground is, of course, with annual check-ups.

Ideally, any worn parts should be replaced as soon as possible upon completion of a thorough inspection and operational report.

To ensure all outdoor play equipment meets with British and European EN1176 standards, check-ups should always be carried out by trained Register Of Playground Inspectors International qualified inspectors.

As one of our customers can attest to, Creative Play provide an excellent aftercare service:

‘We are very grateful for Creative Play’s response to an unfortunate incident that happened over a particular weekend whereby the slide was severely damaged by vandalism’.

Due to being a local business, we were able to respond even faster than usual.

‘They were very quick to replace it (within days) so that the playground could resume to normality’.

Partnering with Creative Play is a great way for schools to get a new, high-quality outdoor play area on any budget. Every child deserves the opportunity to play, and by letting us help you work out ways to save money on an installation, we can make it happen!

Interested in adding a playground to benefit your school?

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Also of Interest:

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