This primary school has transformed its bare playground into an impressive environment that promotes imaginative play and creativity, physical activity and more.

Requirement

The school had a large outside play area for its pupils. It was ideal to run around on, but the space lacked facilities to stimulate and engage the children at playtime.

The school’s head teacher wanted to improve the space in a big way. His vision included giving his pupils access to a motivating play environment with a number of areas to facilitate play and learning.

Solution

Sovereign produced plans incorporating equipment that ticked the boxes for physical activity, imaginative play and possibilities for outdoor learning. This included an outdoor amphitheatre, multi-sports zone and gymnastics area, as well as designs for Sovereign’s largest play tower, The Zion, which needed to be installed into a challenging sloped terrain. Much of the design was completely bespoke in order to meet the school's vision. Planning applications were submitted and adaptions made to the equipment to meet height restrictions imposed by the council.

Plans were agreed and after a full technical site survey, Sovereign installed:

Zion adventure tower
Usually standing at 5.5m high, the Zion is a playground centrepiece that boasts a multitude of activities. The tower needed to be adapted and carefully constructed to ensure it would not exceed the height restrictions of 5m. Its location on a sloped area of the playground meant this was a tricky, but successful installation. While it took a little longer to fully erect the Zion, the school was pleased with the outcome.

Multi-use sports court
Next, Sovereign created a multi-use sports area. Court markings have been laid onto the playground, followed by the installation of two timber MUGA court ends. Featuring a goal and a hoop, sports that can be played on the new court include netball, basketball and football.

Gymnastics area
Sovereign installed a synthetic surface over a tarmac area to create a designated outdoor space for gymnastics. As the school has no grass on its grounds, this provides an ideal alternative.

Amphitheatre and outdoor classroom
Sovereign constructed a bespoke stage area with surround seating, now known as the Hunslet Carr Theatre. The area allows for school performances and outdoor lessons, perfect for learning outside the classroom and encouraging development in creativity. The area features a two-tier stage with pergola roof and also benefits from a timber backdrop with fixed blackboards for visuals.

Outcome

This was a large project for the school, resulting in an enhanced play and learning environment for pupils to enjoy. The equipment not only encourages children to be active and play imaginatively, but it provides a hub of excitement with plenty of activities to keep them engaged during break times and lessons.

“From start to finish it has been a pleasure working with Sovereign to create a wonderful new playground. Emma was professional and full of ideas and worked closely with the School Council to come up with something that the children were excited about and what achieved the school’s aim of engaging the children at playtime. Since the completion of the installation, the children have loved playing on their playground and playtimes, and lunchtimes are calmer, safer and happier.” - Martin Lumb, Head Teacher, Hunslet Carr Primary School.