The overjoyed pupils of King Edward Primary School, in Mansfield, sped straight into their brand-new playground. The beating heart of this large space is a grass-covered tunnel and a wide, circular road track surface design. Gone is a sea of tarmac and an unloved sandpit, and in came a versatile mini trim trail of synthetic-grassed wedges, a traverse wall and endless potential for imaginative play. This play area took our expert team a week to lovingly create.

King Edward School Playground

THE BRIEF

Wanted: an imaginative role play playground

TKing Edward Primary School asked us to deliver a sweeping transformation – could we create a bright space that fosters a love of movement, imaginative play and encourages connection to nature. To meet the brief, we suggested the introduction of surfaces to replace the tarmac. All of the existing trees and shrubs were also earmarked to feature with our greener, more relaxing colour scheme.  

THE DESIGN

Top tip! Always take a track and a tyre park 

A bold black and white road track design became the main theme in this beautiful playground. The vision was brought to life in a series of sketches and would feature our list of highly-recommended equipment: parking bays for the children’s vehicles, mini moveable trim trails, a timber traverse wall and a tyre park especially for older pupils. Our design was a million miles away from the existing playground. It would be carpeted with vibrant green artificial grass.

• What is a mini moveable trim trail? Grass-covered mobile wedges and boxes
• Children love to use mini trim trail pieces for clambering over, building and lining up

THE RESULTS

Climbing and racing cars: all in a day’s play

Adjacent to the school building and flanked by a leafy tree, the new playground design adds drama without overpowering the personality of the existing space. We crossed the finish line of this track-inspired play area with a flourish of green artificial grass, covering the children’s tunnel feature. Next stop for children crawling through the tunnel is a custom-made timber traverse wall, which inspires horizontal clambering.