Youngsters design their own playground at school

Blessing of new playground at Bulwell St MaryÃ¢Â¬"s Primary School

A new playground, designed by youngsters at a Bulwell school, has been blessed by the Bishop of Sherwood.

The pupils at St Mary’s Church Of England Primary and Nursery worked alongside a building and design company to come up with the concept for the playground.

It features a range of exciting facilities, including an outdoor gym, a multi-access climbing tower and an outdoor classroom.

The Bishop, the Rt Rev Tony Porter, blessed the playground at an official opening ceremony, attended by pupils and parents, on Tuesday afternoon.

Blessing of new playground at Bulwell St MaryÃ¢Â¬"s Primary School, the Rt Revd Anthony Porter tries out the new equipment

Daniel Farthing, head teacher at the Ragdale Road school, said: “I am so proud of the way our pupils rose to the challenge of designing their new playground.

“They have been involved in every step of the way -- from the initial design and planning to working with the company to measure the space.

“It has been a collaborative team effort, and the end result is something the whole school will now benefit from.

“The blessing by the Bishop was a wonderful occasion to mark the official opening of the playground.”

The firm enlisted to draw up plans for the playground was Pentagon, play equipment specialists based in Cheshire and Bristol.

A team of expert designers from the company met the children, who helped to measure and plan where all the new equipment would be located.

They also worked with the youngsters to produce 3D design plans and a virtual-reality playground, so that the school could see what it would look like when finished.

Paid for from school funds, the playground was installed over the school summer holidays and was ready in time for the new term, which began earlier this month.

It quickly became so popular with the youngsters that teachers had a difficult job persuading them to go back inside for their lessons!

St Mary’s is a long-established school that has more than 330 pupils, aged from three to 11, on its books.

Its latest OFSTED inspection rated the school Good in all areas and praised staff for overseeing rapid progress in recent years, with pupils achieving above-average standards from “often very low starting points”.