Merton Park is a mixed primary school in Wimbledon with a new and exciting play space for its early years pupils.
The Issue
While the existing playground benefited from a shade sail canopy and wet pour surfacing, the area had become tired. The school wanted to improve its outdoor play provision with a play space that would harness personal, emotional, language and physical development for the early years, while allowing the children to have fun!
The Resolution
Richard Pennington, Area Manager at Sovereign met with the school’s Business Manager, Steph Mapp, to discuss the school’s aims and the key elements that needed to be incorporate into the new area. Due to a fantastic location in Wimbledon and the play area being the first thing people see from the main road – Sovereign was keen to come up with an eye-catching solution that represented the school, while providing a fun, yet interactive, play space.
The Process
Other than its existing playground markings and canopy, the play area was a blank canvass for improvement. Sovereign created designs for a new play area utilising floor space in an imaginative way, with a stimulating selection of outdoor play equipment to support development. With emphasis on wet pour surfacing, Sovereign designed a play space that wouldn’t be closed in with lots of equipment, but made flooring fun while promoting social interaction with other children.
This was complemented with a range of play facilities and outdoor furniture to give children access to a wide assortment of playtime activities.
Sovereign’s designs were well received and after a couple of small changes, the installation was ready to commence. Richard felt that the design had provided excitement within the school on transforming the tired area into something bright and colourful for the children.
The Installation
New equipment was installed over a three week period. This included extensive re-surfacing to the play area with wet pour in a number of bright colours. This incorporated a roadway, fishes and alphabet layouts, allowing children to really use their imaginations, whether learning the alphabet or running around the roadway design or using their bikes and go karts.
The team installed a selection of new play facilities to promote many areas of learning and development in the playground. This included staging and seating, a covered sand pit and water flow activity panel, a play lodge and blackboard activity panels.
The wide selection of equipment provides endless opportunities for children to use their imaginations, for example, the sandpit gives a great impression of being by the beach, and if not by the beach, children could be performing a West End show on the corner stage with seating.
In addition to the selection of play equipment, was the installation of a quiet area with toadstool seating to provide opportunities for learning outside the classroom. The area was finished with a storage unit, colourful fencing and bespoke planters around the existing canopy.
The Results
Merton Park Primary School now benefits from bright outdoor area for interactive learning and play. The new equipment enhances personal, emotional, language and physical development for the school’s children – while giving them access to plenty of playtime opportunities.
”Once the final design was agreed, the contractors were on site and on time. The quality of work was excellent, and was carried out with a great deal of care, so as not to disrupt the infrastructure of the playing field upon which the skate park was built. The design of the park has been a big hit with youngsters of all ages.
I was really impressed with the professionalism of Sovereign Sales Manager, Justin Mottaz, who I met on site on a number of occasions to discuss our needs. He was backed up by prompt and detailed information from his team, and nothing was too much trouble.
Mrs K. GooderickHead Teacher
