BLOGS
Staying Safe in Active Play Education
In the UK, physical development requirements are part of a key framework for group and school-based providers. Teachers and parents can all agree that maximising a child’s time engaging in active play education is essential to their physical development. However, knowledge around supply, installation, and long-term maintenance of playtime equipment is sparse.
Schools Need to Ask Themselves:
- Does my supplier adhere to safe product design and BS EN standards?
- Does my supplier have the technical knowledge to craft context-specific, safe installations?
- How long will my playground equipment last?
At The School Playground Company, we have over 25 years of experience in creating challenging structures, and we are experts in ensuring every solution is safe for every child.
Safety Surfacing
Our surfacing solutions include wetpour, Safer Grass, artificial grass, playground pathways & daily mile tracks. We take both aesthetic appeal and safety measures into consideration when levelling up your outdoor surfaces, to enable all-weather, all-year access. Our surfaces protect children from frosty and muddy conditions, allowing them to focus on fun. This means no more autumn or winter forced indoor playtime!
Safe Grass
If you’re looking for a real grass field, but tailored to be a near-all-weather safety surface, our Safer Grass is the solution. We install cost-effective grass mats, embedded to ensure no trip hazards, with an underlying stabilising mesh to prevent the mats sinking.
The grass can grow through, allowing a natural appearance, without the slip dangers of mud, whether on flat or sloping surfaces. For additional protection, our grass mat products meet all relevant BS EN standards and have a critical fall height of up to 3m.
Bonded Rubber Mulch
Another low-maintenance surfacing solution, bonded rubber mulch achieves a natural appearance matched by its outstanding sustainability. We source rubber mulch from recycled car tyres shredded into bark-shaped shreds with a specialist colour-coating applied.
Installation is simple and quick as the rubber solution sits evenly over existing tarmac and concrete and even around trees. There are also no concerns for drainage when using rubber mulch as it is one of the most porous playground surfaces available.
Staying out of the sun
There are immense benefits of sunlight, including improved mental health, increased vitamin-D levels, and disease prevention. However prolonged, unprotected UVA and UVB-related exposure for young children can be dangerous. Unfortunately, this exposure is highest between 10am and 4pm, during school hours.
Therefore, in all conversations we have with our clients, we bring in our outdoor classrooms and gazebos range. These shelters provide shaded rest and learning areas for students and staff alike. We can supply and install gazebos, reading huts, canopies & shelters, sail shades, or even ‘something different’… such as the mysterious Hobbit House and Sheperd Hut! These provide safe active play education options, with a fun twist.
Our more conventional option, Sail Shades, can create a large, shaded area, with minimal intrusion to the playground beyond four sturdy poles. Or, if you are looking for an enclosed area for a dedicated outdoor learning experience, our outdoor canopies and shelters provide a unique, customisable offering.
Our team recently renovated a canopy and installed a coloured roof system at Stretton CofE Academy. Check out our video to discover their ‘lighter, brighter, easier to maintain’ outdoor area.
Slip Proofing
Each surface solution we provide has slip-proofing at its core, regardless of whether it’s for a busy trim trial, or a quiet sensory place.
- Bonded rubber mulch absorbs shocks and vertically drains rainfall.
- Our grass options have hole-punched backing to distribute shock evenly across the surface.
- Wetpour surfacing is very porous, allowing drainage through its layers to prevent puddles forming.
Each surfacing option meets BS EN 1176 (playground equipment safety) and BS EN 1177 (shock-absorbing surfacing) standards.
For example, we replaced the old, worn-down safety surfacing at Burton Joyce Primary School in Nottinghamshire. Their new artificial grass prevented mud and hole issues, alongside installing a Trim Trail and Climbing Tower. Check out our video to see for yourself.
Wood Quality
Our wooden shelter, active play products utilise premium ‘glulam laminated timber’. A safe alternative to steel, plastic, and bricks, glulam bonds together laminates of timber using moisture-resistant, enduring adhesives. The end result: waterproof, long-lasting outdoor active play education!
The smooth finish through lamination means glulam has multiple uses, whether as a flooring, support structure, or seating. We therefore offer a variety of products that use this wood within our active play range:
- trim trails
- climbing towers
- agility sticks
- forest trim trails
- climbing walls
- other bespoke designs
One of our most popular selections has been the trim trail, comprised of balancing beams, stepping logs, crawl through tunnels, and loads more. Check out the trim trail brochure for full product specifications and components.
Explore Active Play Education with The School Playground Company
Interested in finding out more about our outdoor active play equipment and safer-surfacing solutions? Looking for inspiration from our previous projects? We are the go-to school playground supplier in the Midlands, advocating for active play education for local schools.
Book an appointment, reach out to us at info@schoolplaygroundcompany.co.uk, or give us a call on 01455 412134.