Playground Equipment Buyer's Guide for Early Years
Hand Made Places Sales Manager, Andy Kerr, discusses the considerations when choosing the right equipment for your project.
Contents
- Introduction to EYFS Playgrounds
- Active Playgrounds for EYFS
- Imagination Playgrounds for EYFS
- Outdoor Learning for EYFS
- BS EN 1176 Safety Guidelines for EYFS Playgrounds
- Colourful Surfacing for EYFS Playgrounds
- Budgets & Funding for EYFS Playgrounds
- Early Years Playground Equipment Summary
Introduction to EYFS Playgrounds
Most Primary Schools with Early Years in the UK have an outdoor area dedicated for EYFS children to safely enjoy the outdoors, learning how to play, physically develop, build social skills and improve their cognitive development.
These outdoor spaces, effectively the Early Years Playground for a better description, are an essential space for the children and form the basis of play throughout their childhood and beyond.
When we consider the design & layout of an Early Years Playground, we must consider that every project and school setup will be unique. That might be the shape of the space, the gradient of the shape, the different surface types within a space and even the direction in which a playground faces. All offer different challenges and opportunities but can generally follow a set of guidelines to create the perfect playground.
To start, we need to break up the playground into three key zones.
Zone 1: Active Playgrounds for EYFS
The Active Play Zone is often the focal point of the playground, set right in the centre of the space. It will usually include a climbing frame with variable climbing routes leading to a series of platforms, often joined by a climbing net or play bridge, all complete with a slide. Options such as our Toddlers Tower or Balksbury Activity Centre Play Tower are great choices designed with early years in mind.
For larger spaces, the addition of a Trim Trail can often provide a greater challenge, although not all types will be effective. Products such as a Wobble Bridge or a Balance Beam will improve a child’s balance and coordination.
To compliment that physical equipment, early years playgrounds often use patterns and colours within the safety surface or surrounding area to create additional active elements. This can be a roadway complete with traffic lights, zebra crossing and parking spaces for the children to use balance bikes or similar to engage in physical activity for example.
Zone 2: Imagination Playgrounds for EYFS
The second segment is the Imagination Zone, where a piece of playground equipment can stimulate a scenario for a child to act out their stories and dreams. A great example of this is a Star Stage, a place for children to perform a song, dance or other performance in front of their friends. With televisions shows such as Britain’s Got Talent being popular weekend viewing, children will try and replicate what they’ve seen on TV.
Another great example is a Messy Kitchen or Discovery Table. Children will enjoy cooking dinner, baking and more with the added element of mud or sand, etc. This brings an additional sensory element into the fun, all whilst children build social skills and often replicating the actions of their parents.
Placement of imagination playground equipment is often at one end (furthest away from the classroom) or around the perimeter of the playground. This is due to the equipment often being smaller or that it doesn’t fall under the space restrictions of BS EN 1176 (see below for more details).
Zone 3: Outdoor Learning for EYFS
Not necessarily play but absolutely part of the EYFS playground, the closest space to the building is often used as an extension of the classroom, specifically for outdoor learning. Children need to feel comfortable in this space so as well and the usual tables and chairs, some form of canopy or shelter is required for protection from the weather. We refer to this as an outdoor classroom.
This can be a simple structure, like our Grace Shelter for example. These used to be called a ‘lean to’ canopy but now are almost always supported by their own structures, so as not to compromise the school buildings. They can provide protection from rain during poor weather or UV protection from the sun during periods of good weather.
Another shelter often found in EYFS playgrounds are shade sails. These fun shelters are primarily designed to provide shade from the sun and can be manufactured in various shapes such as triangles and squares, with many colours available. The shade provided makes a perfect space for a reading area, which can incorporate a Storytelling Chair for teachers to read stories to the class.
BS EN 1176 Safety Guidelines for EYFS Playgrounds
Playground equipment, whether that be for any aged child, is covered by BS EN 1176. The standard considers all the elements of safety such as fall zones, safety surfacing, potential entrapment and inspection. The standard is available for the public to purchase but we don’t expect you to become overnight experts.
What we offer is a completely free of charge site visit, either in person or via an online meeting, where an experienced technical team who are experts in playground safety can create a BS EN 1176 compliant safe playground, based on your general requirements. We can even prepare and propose the entire playground for you based on a set budget, based on our success for previous customer with similar requirements.
Colourful Surfacing for EYFS Playgrounds
Part of the above safety consideration is the amount and shock absorption that a surface needs to have, which is part of the safety standard and will always be offered during our free site visit. However, safety surfacing can be used to extent and improve the play value of an early years playground.
Surfacing such as wet pour, which is a rubber crumb that is mixed with an adhesive to provide a solid yet impact absorbing surface, can be provided in an array of colours. For example, we can use a green wet pour to identify land or grass, and a blue to identify water. Then, with the addition of a wave bridge or water-based animal sculptures such as our shark, we can promote a child’s imagination to a land and water-based roleplay such as swimming or playing at the beach.
Surfacing always adds sensory value. An area of artificial grass, that has much less maintenance than natural grass, is a great option for a child to sit, socialise and express themselves in area often considered safe due to purely the ‘feel’ of the surface.
Budgets & Funding for EYFS Playgrounds
There is no getting away from the fact that the more budget available, the better the playground might be. However, with that being said, wooden playground equipment in the UK is very affordable. For around £20-50k, a school can buy and install some fantastic playground equipment.
For most schools, funding doesn’t come all at once, but the good news is you're probably not starting from scratch. A smart approach is to focus on one of the three play zones at a time, spreading the project over three years or more. Each zone naturally connects to the next, and with the help of our expert technical team, we can break the project into manageable, budget-friendly stages to turn your dream playground into a reality, step by step.
Looking further into additional funding streams, we provide a comprehensive funding guide that is downloadable on our website. The guide lists the various funding streams available throughout the UK.
Early Years Playground Equipment Summary
With over 25 years planning and designing playgrounds with our customers, we’ve found the perfect recipe to incorporate all the elements of play & learning into outdoor spaces designated for EYFS.
By understanding the needs and benefits of the playground to the children, and by breaking the areas of the playground down into zones located in the right spaces, Hand Made Places can supply and install the very best wooden playground equipment for your project.
We hope this buyers guide gives an insight into some of the thought process that we use on each and every project we work on. When you are ready to start your project, or if you’re already underway on your playground journey, why not book in for a free site visit from one of our technical team? We can add our experience into your project and create the next best playground for EYFS in the UK.