Parent's Area : Changes in School
Thank you
On Wednesday 14th October and Thursday 15th October a team from Asda came in to help redevelop the wildlife area within the school. They had the very muddy task of emptying the dipping pond and replacing the liner, as the old one had become damaged. They were rather muddy afterwards! The children enjoyed watching this take place during playtime on Wednesday. They also erected a wooden fence in front of the dipping pond and to the back of the forest area. Within the forest area a bird watching hide was created, where the children can watch the wildlife. we hope to get some bird feeders, and bird boxes shortly. Finally the team removed the old chippings and soil and laid a weed liner down before laying new chippings. The children were all excited to see the changes on Friday and wrote Thank You letters to Asda. If you can please take a few minutes to have a look around the grounds to see all the fantastic changes which have happened, and watch out for further development of the school grounds.
We would like to say a BIG Thank You to those who very kindly gave up some of their spare time on Sunday 13th September to help to improve and transform the playground outside the school and areas around the school. Also a Thank you to the children who helped Mrs Pulleyn with the weeding of the first half of the chipping area during the week, your all superstars!
As you can see from the photos the playground dramatically improved in just a few hours and all the children were excited to see the changes when they came to school on Monday morning, and have enjoyed playing on the new playground markings. The colour of the shed also got a big thumbs up from the children.
Playground Development
We are very lucky to have beautiful surroundings and amazing grounds at Bramham Primary School. However, it cannot be denied that the playground is in need of development. Over the next few years, we will be focussing on improving all the play areas and nature areas around the grounds. The aim is to make outdoor play safer and more stimulating for our children and to increase the opportunities for outdoor learning and interaction with nature. Shelagh Dixon from Education Leeds came out recently to look at the playground and gave us some great advice and access to resources to help with the project. She advised that we use the 'Zoneparc' model which suggests that an effective playground has 3 distinct zones: a zone for traditional, active sports such as football, tennis, cricket and so on; a multi-activity zone where the level of activity is slightly less and children can play alone or in groups e.g. skipping, dancing, low level climbing equipment; and finally a quiet zone where children are encouraged to sit quietly and talk or play board games or word games. This approach, which has been developed by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) with support from the Youth Sport Trust and Nike encourages children to play in a way that suits them best and therefore results in more constructive playtimes with less conflict and happier children (and happier playtime supervisors!).
There is a long way to go before the project will be completed, not least because the work will need to be financed through fundraising and grants. However, the ball is now rolling to start on the foundations of the Key Stage One play area. The surfacing in this area will be our priority and we hope to have this completed by the end of the year. The plan is to resurface the flagged area outside the classrooms with safety tarmac, and the 'bark' area (which more of a 'mud' area these days!) with turf, protected by safety matting. This stops the grass wearing away and provides a soft landing if children fall as we hope next year to be able to install some low-level play equipment such as a 'trim trail' (bridges and balancing logs etc) on this grass. We also have 'Holly Bush', an environmental charity linked to Skelton Grange in Leeds, coming to advise us on developing a nature area in the top corner by the Key Stage Two playground.
We will also be working in the short term to provide new markings on the top hard play area (in consultation with the children) and we will be running a competition to improve the 'ball wall'.
We are currently obtaining quotes for the work and completing our application for funding, the outcome of which we should know in July/ August. In addition to this, we will be making some cosmetic improvements to the outdoor area as soon as possible, with the help of FoBS members and any willing parent volunteers (being such a small school our biggest challenge is our lack of resource so any help is gratefully received!), just tidying up and painting sheds etc. If you would like to offer help in the form of your time or any equipment you might be able to donate, or have any suggestions for the playground, please give me a call on 0777 594 2626.
Finally we are hoping to receive a grant shortly from the 'Travel Plan' that we all completed at the end of last year which will allow us to build a shelter (for those cold windy mornings when we're waiting outside in the playground!)/ Outdoor teaching area outside the Key Stage One classroom.
Meriel Aspinall