Colne Christ Church C of E Primary School, Colne
Colne Christ Church C of E Primary School called ESP Play because they wanted to invest their Sports Premium money into to some new climbing equipment. The school is a one form entry, voluntary aided, Church of England primary school situated on the outskirts of Colne town centre. They have good links with their Church and the local community. Their aim is to provide all children with an education of the highest quality within a caring Christian environment. One of the first things that visitors to the school comment on is the family atmosphere that seems almost ‘tangible’. They are committed to nurturing and developing the unique potential of each child, whatever their gifts, abilities or needs. Their curriculum is designed to actively engage, excite and enthuse their children. They have lots of visitors into the school, regularly organise field trips and hold ‘themed’ days to help make the children’s learning ‘vivid’ and ‘real’. As a school they firmly believe that they can only achieve the best for their children by close co-operation between home and school. They are proud to have achieved several high profile awards including, National Healthy School status, a Learning Excellence ‘innovative practice’ award for their work on Inclusion and a ‘good practice’ award for Pupil Power. Most recently they have been awarded the Basic Skills Quality Mark which reflects their commitment to equipping pupils with essential basic English and Mathematics skills.
Location: Colne
The Brief
The school had recently had a new building built to cater for the increasing amount of pupils who attended. As a result of the extension, they had two separate playgrounds; one for the children in KS1 and one for the children in KS2. In the KS1 playground they only had some markings and there was nothing in the KS2 playground because it was only recently added. They wanted to invest their sports premium money into adding some climbing equipment into both areas and decided that our trim trail range was the perfect addition.
The Project
The school decided to keep the KS1 trim trail low level so that it did not require a safety surface, this allowed them to include more pieces of equipment. The trail consists of 9 pieces including the inclined scramble net, drop rope traverse, spinning log, log pass and log stride to name a few. Each piece is designed to help the children develop and improve new skills from balance to co-ordination. We made sure to run the trail along the perimeter of the area so that the children still had plenty of free space to run and play in. In the KS2 playground, the school wanted to keep the tarmac space free and so the trim trail needed to be installed onto the grass. They were keen to have a surface under the trail because they wanted the children to be able to use it all year round. Having a surface also meant that we could include some higher level pieces of equipment which also provided an extra challenge for the older children and progression from the lower, less challenging trail in KS1. The trail consists of 7 pieces including the twisty challenge, overhead ladder bars and advanced tyre pass. We were also able to help them by installing a soak away drain next to the equipment, they asked us to do this because the school is built on a hill and water from the fields above runs down and causes the grass to become boggy.
The Outcome
They now have two fantastic trim trails that will allow the children to develop fundamental movement skills, build confidence, improve spatial awareness, increase resilience and improve strength and fitness levels. The trails will last for a minimum of 15 years because they have been made with the highest quality laminated timber and materials. The school said they were delighted with the work and the service they received from ESP Play, they would certainly use us again and recommend us to other schools.
Please get in touch if you would like to add some climbing equipment into your playground, we have lots of exciting ranges and products to choose from.
Play Area Before Installation
Play Area After Design and Installation
