Park View Primary School - Manchester
Park View Community Primary School in
Manchester moved to a brand new £7 million site in September and one of
Pendlewood's major projects over the summer was spent ensuring that the outdoor
grounds of the new school were as good as the amazing new building!
The 450 pupil school was moving only a few
hundred metres from its old site and the school were keen to ensure that the
play equipment and outside areas were inspirational, magical and educationally
relevant.
Industry leading urban design group Planit, were enlisted with overall
responsibility for the external play environment and they drafted in Pendlewood
to work in partnership to create what has resulted in a sensational play space that
looks right at home amongst the ultra-modern new school building.
The playground has been fitted out with
some innovative and creative bespoke play equipment including: Barge Decking
outside classroom (with seating & chalkboard), an Amphitheatre, a Castle Fort Play Tower, a
Sandpit, Seating Cubes and the centrepiece of the new school grounds - The
Hobbit Hole, which is Pendlewood's latest role play provoking, storytelling
device.
The project took plenty of hard work and
collaboration; here are the stories of a few of the key personnel involved...
Pendlewood Design Team
"This was a project that really encompassed
what Pendlewood is all about - finding solutions to give children a play
experience that they would usually only dream about.
"Planit approached us with some ideas, many
of which that fell outside our standard product range, but we pride ourselves
on working together with clients to produce groundbreaking bespoke designs. The
Hobbit Hole in particular was a huge success and has now been added to our
regular roster of products.
"The final result of this team effort is a
varied, versatile play space that will provide many educational, social and cognitive
benefits for the lucky youngsters who get to use it."
GEORGINA
BAINES (Senior Associate, Planit)
"We wanted to establish a play environment
that was original to the school and its canal side location. We therefore drew
up a series of designs and approached Pendlewood to see if they could assist in
developing these ideas and bringing them to life.
"From day one Pendlewood were very
enthusiastic and keen to turn these plans into reality. Through a process of
design development they quickly turned simple sketches into full working
drawings with 3D images. Pendlewood also allayed any health and safety concerns
by arranging for all designs to be assessed for compliance with all industry
standards.
"Once into production Pendlewood worked extremely
hard, meeting all deadlines and the quality of the finished products was well
above even our original expectations! Their experience of working in education
sector shone through and the items they provided have made both Planit and the school very pleased. I'm
sure we'll be working together again soon."
