Newsletter - Outdoor Spaces Update 3
26th March 2019
We held a community meeting to discuss the Pūkaki play area on 4th March. It was great to have so many people interested interested with this first project. This meeting highlighted the need for us to create a space for our school community, to be able to easily access the information about the outdoor spaces development around the school and to keep the school community informed of up and coming events.
A tab has been created on the school website for you to be able to access from one place all the newsletter updates that we send out, along with information about the processes we are following and the projects that are currently being worked on.
We are aware that the development of the outdoor spaces is taking time. As a committee, we are committed to ensuring that we achieve the best possible outcomes for all. Having student voice and involvement is an important element of this process as the children are the ones who will be using the spaces and are our guardians of this land. We also want to ensure that the areas created across the school have a consistent ‘flow’. The school cultural narrative is our guiding theme. The cultural narrative is our story and what makes our space in the world unique. Here is our school cultural narrative if you are unfamiliar with it. It also explains the development and significance of our school logo and building names.
We have developed a set of protocols to be governed by to ensure the developments across the school are equitable. These are the Beckenham Outdoor Spaces Committee Process Protocols
as approved by the BOT:
Guidelines/Process
1. Gather Ideas (Students) based on set criteria. They must:
- Support our cultural narrative
- Be accessible for all children
- Support neurodiverse as well as neurotypical students (different spaces for different purposes; busy/quiet spaces)
- Be achievable
- Be within the set budget (organised by the Outdoor Spaces team)
2. Refine ideas and put in 2-3 plans for consideration
3. Involve experts (landscape architect and playground expert) to review the plans
4. Confirm the plan- costings, timeline etc.
5. Ensure plans meet safety guidelines
6. Install the project
Here are our latest developments
Pūkaki Play Space The plans for the Pukaki play space are all ready to go. We are awaiting a tree report to understand the viability of working on and around the tree roots.
Junior Playground
The children are currently being asked for their input into the refurbishment of this play area. We plan to repaint and repair damaged and worn areas on the current playground and will add new items to enhance what is already there. The children across the school will be asked for their ideas for what they would like to see updated and added. It is important that we have student involvement as they are the ones who will be using the area. We would like to begin this over the Term 2 holidays and complete this in the first few weeks of Term 2 so the children receive the greatest benefit.
Court Markings
We are aware that we need to add some court games across the school. The senior school are investigating what types of court markings that they would like to install across the school. This may include hopscotches, four square, twister, chess etc. We will send out the plans when they are developed. This will give the children more games to be able to play at break times and maximise the use of our court space.
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| Examples of court markings |
We are currently putting in an order from trees for Canterbury for us to use across the school.
Outdoor Spaces Committee