St Mary and Michael Catholic Primary School, Preston

The Background
St Mary and Michael’s is a Catholic Voluntary Aided Primary School and an important part of the parish community. Although there was a Catholic School in the town in the eighteenth century, the first parts of the present building were erected in 1858. The school itself, on the southern edge of the town, is by the River Wyre looking out towards Greenhalgh Castle and the Bowland Fells. The school believes passionately in the education and opportunities they provide for their children. Their desire is for every child in school to have the very best experience they can – in everything! Their children will remember their time there in years to come; happy and fond memories they can treasure forever. Their children have the very best academic start in their education, this is enhanced by creative, environmental, enriched and social opportunities ensuring that they develop wholly in every area, into young people of the future.

The Brief
The school had some sports premium money to spend, they had some old playground markings that had faded considerably and so they felt it was time to invest the money in some new ones. The school’s ultimate goal was to increase the amount of physical activity taking place within the playground during both break and lunch times.

The Project
Our sales consultant met with Luena the Headteacher at the school to discuss her requirements. Luena instantly fell in love with our Multi-Skills markings package because it includes CPD training for the staff as well as playground buddies training for the children. This package was exactly what she was looking for; colourful markings that give the staff an understanding of how they can be used and can in turn encourage the children to use them to get moving, interact and play fun games with each other. Luena had also decided that she wanted to include a blank 100 square grid that could be used to carry out interactive maths lessons and some target boards so the children could practice aiming and throwing. The brief was then passed to a member of the design team that worked hard to draw up a replica of the schools playground, the designer carefully added in the chosen markings and target boards and made sure there was enough space around each one to allow for its proper use. Once the school was happy with the design, they placed their order and received a date in May for the installation.

The Outcome
The installation of playground markings is weather dependant, they cannot be installed if it is raining, snowing or icy, however, the work was successfully completed in May. Once the installation was complete, our Head of CPD attended the school to carry out the training with the staff and the children, they all thoroughly enjoyed it and now know how to use the new markings.
The school now has some vibrant playground markings that encourage the children to be active and improve their fundamental movement skills. Research proves that daily physical activity increases self-esteem, improves emotional wellbeing and lowers anxiety and depression. Children who are physically active are happier, more resilient and more trusting of their peers. Ensuring that pupils have access to sufficient daily activity can also have wider benefits for pupils and schools, improving behaviour as well as enhancing academic achievement.
Not only do the new markings increase the amount of physical activity within the playground but they also provide the teachers with a tool to enable them to take teaching outside of the classroom by creating active outdoor lessons too. The Multi-Step Column is great for maths and the Multi-Skills markings as a whole are fantastic tools for PE, competitions and interschool festivals.
Upon a return visit in November, the Headteacher Luena said “What a difference the colour of the markings have made, they instantly lifted the drab tarmac. The children love the goalie target board in particular, I use the nine square grid during PE lessons and the blank number grid to teach maths. Rather than chalking the numbers in, I leave it blank and ask the children to find where the number would be which is far more challenging.” One of the lunchtime supervisors also said how much she enjoyed the CPD training.

If you have a tarmac space that requires some markings please get in touch with a member of our team today to arrange your free consultation.