With money and plants ready to go we nevertheless wanted to take our time to get it right. Year 3 undertook a design project that consulted students and came up with a comprehensive plan for playground improvement as part of the Kids’ Design Challenge in Term 3, 2007.
Here is the 3-D model of their proposal:
3W students questioned students in each class about their playground and activity preferences and, specifically, their likes and dislikes about Playground C. For 75% of Ferncourt students, this is their favourite playground.
3W’s Playground C Design Brief
The class developed the following design brief for improvements to Playground C which:
- Allow maximum running areas
- Protect and improve existing grass and trees
- Make playing fields usable again
- Make the playground safer and
- Ensure the playground can be used and enjoyed by everyone from K-6.
Overall a majority of students approved all five suggestions. The most popular change was a second set of equipment and the least popular was the new Greengrid planting.
This close up shows the existing trees, interspersed with low-growing native plants around the perimeter. The soccer posts are re-oriented and the fence raised to prevent lost soccer balls!
There were also plans for a additional set of play equipment although it should be noted that Yr 3 were not working to a budget and the ESC had discovered through their research that even a small piece of play equipment would quickly exhaust available funds.
