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Building Climbing Skills at Birkenhead Christ Church Primary!

Posted on by Samantha Tolley

A Bespoke Trim Trail for Birkenhead Christ Church

Looking to improve their tarmacked area and make it more reception-friendly, Miss Compton, Birkenhead Christ Church CE Primary School’s reception teacher, contacted Pentagon Play for some design ideas!

Outdoor Learning Consultant, Ian Wood, was glad to be involved in such a worthwhile project and worked closely with the school to design their ideal space. 

Already, Miss Compton has noticed the benefits of a developed outdoor area: 

“It’s made such a huge impact already”

On your marks, get set…

 

One of the priorities for the reception space was climbing facilities for the pupils with under-developed gross motor skills. 

Providing safe and low-height equipment for those children who are only just learning to climb is essential for building children’s climbing confidence. 

a little girl leaps between the blocks testing her agility

Our Get Set Go! Blocks provide a safe space for pupils to experiment with their climbing and develop their skills at their own speed. 

The Mendips Set is one of our most popular sets featuring a miniature slide, a balance beam and a range of different inclines on the blocks.

a child slides down the miniature slide in the get set, go block sets

The set includes 12 blocks and they can be moved around into whatever format you choose! 

Customizing the routes means that pupils will never tire of these blocks as the possibilities are endless! 

a little girl makes her way across the get set go blocks in her red, white and grey school uniform

The pupils at Birkenhead Christ Church Primary School definitely made full use of them, both for developing their climbing, but also for practicing their writing. 

Using the mark-making panels on the side, pupils used whiteboard pens to draw and write on the side of the blocks, giving instructions and names to the blocks!

The children were already having so much fun with our Get Set, Go! Blocks and we’re sure they will continue to make the most of them for a long time to come!

a child draws on the block with a marker pen using the mark making panels to do a drawing

A Bespoke Trim Trail Design

 

One of the great qualities about Pentagon Play Trim Trails is the ability to pick and choose individual trim trail items to create your own bespoke trail.

Pentagon already has a fantastic selection of pre-designed trails to choose from, but occasionally, schools like to choose something a bit more suited to their individual needs. 

children in red, white and grey uniforms cross the clatter bridge, disc poles and the balance beam

With the blue and red Net Traverse, pupils will develop their upper arm strength and their balance as they pull themselves along!

Speaking of balance, Birkenhead Christ Church also added in a mini balance beam to their circuit to improve their pupils’ balance skills as well as a Parallel Rope Traverse where pupils were eager to swing along the ropes and hang on tight.

a child swings on the red parallel ropes

Pupils enjoyed navigating their way along the Incline Balance Beam Crossing and the Set of 4 Disc Poles and testing their agility against their peers. 

children cross the disc polls carefully with artificial grass surfacing beneath

Finally, before completing the circuit, pupils enjoyed bouncing along the bridge and making lots of noise as they did so! 

What a great trail for developing climbing skills and we’re sure this will be a huge benefit to the pupils. 

children walk across the clatter bridge

A Surfacing Scene

When installing climbing equipment such as a trim trail, it is usually recommended to install some safety surfacing in case pupils take a tumble.

Underneath surfaces such as Artificial Grass, there are baseworks and shockpads that reduce the risk of serious injuries if anyone takes a fall. 

children in red school uniform run around on the wetpour roadway

This was something that was very important for the pupils at this reception as they were still very much in the beginner stages of climbing and therefore, were more likely to take a bump!

Covering the shockpads with Artificial Grass not only adds an extra layer of protection, but it also makes the area look fresh and revitalized!

children run around on the artificial grass and wetpour roadway

This reception space was also added in a new Wetpour Roadway where little learners can practice their bike and scooter riding or participate in their P.E lessons. 

Children used this track as a running lane and tested their speed against their peers!

children cling to the net traverse as they cross the ropes

It was a pleasure working with Birkenhead Christ Church Primary School on this development and it seems the pupils are getting full use of this space already: 

“It’s part of our P.E lessons so we’re doing different ways of moving so we’ve done over, under so we use it very regularly, we also love our topics and themes so it’s useful across the board so it’s fantastic”

If you would like to find out how to design an area that’s a perfect fit for your reception pupils,

then Contact Us Today for a free consultation with our Internal Learning Advisors. 

Or, see our complete range of Get Set, Go! Blocks now and have them delivered in 6-8 weeks. 

We hope to hear from you soon!

children climb along the parallel rope traverse



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