Natural Playground Renovation for Early Years Education

Playground design & build specialists

What a scheme!

A natural playground renovation, designed to inspire and encourage outdoor education for primary school children.

Having a large space to work with, Newby Leisure and the staff at Willows Academy were able to generate a magnificent play area that includes enough of a variety to keep children entertained for hours on end!

Natural Grass Mound

Using natural grass on the surface, Newby Leisure’s grass mounds are a fantastic feature to generate an earthy feel to any outdoor, educational environment.

Children will engage in physical education like never before as they clamber, climb, slide and roll up and down the grass mound, building body awareness in the process.

Adding this higher level of ground to the play area, encourages risk and challenge play for the little ones. Helping them to overcome fears and develop useful life skills such as, self-esteem and problem solving.

Newby Leisure’s grass mounds are fantastic for creating a natural look and feel to any nature play environment.

Large Rustic Playhouse

Outdoor lesson time has been made more fun thanks to this rustic, robust resource!

Complete with a deck base, children can utilise this outside space as a stage to engage in role play activities.

Spacious inside, this playhouse is suitable to hold numerous children at a time.

Children can turn this space into a large indoor reading den, or simply just a quiet space to escape the playground chaos!

Endless amounts of fun waits for the children of Willows Academy.

Natural Learning Environment

The focal feature of this renovation shows natural, fallen clamber tree, side by side with a water play stream.

A great space with a variety of play to choose from, children will develop many skills as they learn through play.

Enhancing gross and fine motor skills and sensory exploration as they pump the water along the stream. Newby Leisure’s water play streams generate a tranquil place to play or relax as well as encouraging water play for early years education.

After a session of water play, children can head straight to the clamber tree to enhance their physical ability.

Challenges occur when a child climbs a tree as being off the ground provides them with the opportunity to test themselves whilst having fun and exercising!

Combining nature with physical play, it doesn’t get much better than that!

Learning Through Outdoor Play

Incorporated into this natural playground renovation is a selection of freestanding, timber play resources, each one encouraging different kinds of play.

Children can let their imagination run wild as they get creative using the painting window, chalkboard, and weaving panel. These would make a great addition to outdoor art lessons, allowing children to enhance their mark making, imaginative skills!

Teachers can allow the kids of Willows Academy to mix and make potions and mud pies using the outdoor mud kitchen, fostering curiosity and exploration whilst doing so.

Other timber resources include a sandpit, skip and blocks, storytellers’ throne, and multiple storage solutions. Giving children the option to engage in construction play and role play.

The fun never ends in this playground!

Keeping the School Safe!

Newby Leisure understand that the safety of children is priority when designing an outdoor play area.

To put the teachers and parents’ minds at ease during play time, we decided to install a selection of safety surfacing options and a bespoke timber fence to surround the surface area.

Bark, natural grass, new pour, and block paving are the options that were chosen when designing this scheme. Not only are they ideal for ensuring safety, but they are also an attractive solution.