West Dunbartonshire Environment Trust

St Mary’s Primary, Free Play Project

..….tarmac to nature!

West Dunbartonshire Environment Trust has been working with children at St Mary’s Primary school, Alexandria to transform their playground into a ‘free play space’ as part of Inspiring Scotland’s ‘Go Play’ initiative.

This is an imaginative project which reflects the Trust’s vision to create fantastic school playgrounds akin to those in Scandinavia. This has been done to assist the teaching staff deliver the curriculum for excellence through outdoor learning experiences for children. The Trust aims to demonstrate the educational benefits of free play spaces in schools and hopefully inspire others to take up the challenge.

Trust Manager, Alan McMullen, said “the concept of ‘free play’ has been around in Europe for many years and is intended to offer opportunities for children to experience and connect with nature. Schools are a vital part of children’s development so it is important that they can use their creativity and imagination in learning through free play”.

The Trust has undertaken design workshops with the children and developed their ideas to create a learning space which is fun, exciting, challenging and stimulating. Pupils have visited other inspirational places and also got their hands dirty by planting up a new bog garden where there was once only tarmac. The first phase of the project ripped up over 1500 sq.M of tarmac and created landscaped hills, tunnels and even a beach area. Recycled lorry tyres were used to form edging and the old tarmac was reused to create the hills. The next phase will see the installation of willow dens, a tree hut and an outdoor classroom.

Head teacher, Charlie Kennedy, commented “that the community of St Mary’s are delighted with their new learning environment which has been created with such imaginative partners. This has not only transformed our former tarmac play ground into a wonderful landscaped area but has enhanced the children’s interest in nature & increased their level of physical activity. Children will be able to learn how to manage risk in the outdoor environment in a controlled and supported manner which will in addition develop broader skills for learning and life”. One teacher also observed that when the children come back into class from their break “there is a lovely smell of fresh grass in the room!” Neil Blake, Performance Adviser with Inspiring Scotland, said “We are delighted to have been able to fund this Go Play project by West Dunbartonshire Environment Trust. It is wonderful to see how quickly the children have enjoyed using the space for play. Good outdoor spaces are essential to children’s learning and development and play makes a tremendous contribution to happy and healthy childhoods. In turn this makes children much more likely to grow up into happy and healthy adults who can make the most of their lives.”

The Project is believed to be only the second of its type in Scotland and is the culmination of The Environment Trust’s research and collaboration with schools and colleagues from Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Germany. It is now recognised that such projects not only encourage physical activity but also improve attentiveness, learning and well being. The project was made possible through the funding and support of Inspiring Scotland and West Dunbartonshire Community Planning Partnership.

The official opening of the project will be held at 1PM, Thursday 23rd September 2010.

(St Mary’s Primary School is located on Bank Street, Alexandria, West Dunbartonshire G83 0UJ