pentagon play logo

Knayton CE Primary School’s Forest Trim Trail

Adding Further Physical Play Challenges to a Forest School Area

 

The lucky children at Knayton CE Primary School in Thirsk, North Yorkshire, have a beautiful outdoor learning area and field for the children to fully utilise in their weekly forest school lesson.

However, the school felt that they were missing some key features in their outdoor learning space, including a dedicated entrance to the space, seating and physical play challenges.

Our outdoor education expert, Meg Ragdale, was delighted to visualise the ideas the school had in mind for this exciting play space.

A Forest Trim Trail for Physical Play

 

The school was keen to introduce some structured physical play challenges into the area and our newly released Forest Trim Trail Equipment was the perfect fit for the area!

Children playing on a forest trim trail, including a drop rope tightrope, horizontal log bridge and balance weaver with incline beam.

A Drop Rope Tightrope Crossing, Log Balance Weaver with Inclined Beam and Log Bridge Crossing provide various challenges for the children to develop their upper and lower body strength, fine and gross motor skills and climbing confidence as they tackle the tree-top challenges.

For thrill seekers and the cautious climbers of forest school, the trim trail has provided a stimulating mentally motivating and physical challenging obstacle course for all age groups!

Four children playing and laughing on our log balance weaver with horizontal beam and horizontal log bridge crossing

Playground Seating for Outdoor Lessons

 

Beforehand, the school didn’t have any fixed resources for the children to sit down on to participate in lessons and listen to the teachers speak before beginning their exciting activities.

With this in mind, we installed seven of our Perch Benches in a circle in the corner of the field.

The benches provide plenty of seating for the children to relax on and even provides children with a safe area for teachers to light BBQ’s and fire pits in the centre!

Seven perch benches congregated in a circle form with a fire pit in the middle of it. Trees are lined up behind the benches.

An Arbour Entrance to Zone the Space

 

To clearly zone the area off from the rest of the school playground, we installed one of our timber arbours that allow climbing plants to wind and weave through the timber slats.

Children playing on the whole forest trim tail, other children are running around the outside of this piece of equipment.

The school have even planted a selection of trees and hedges along the side of the arbour so that the children can watch their new natural boundary grow and flourish!

Is your Forest School Area lacking fixed resources that would improve the practically of your outdoor learning area? Contact us here to begin your journey with Pentagon Play and find out how we can help bring your playground dreams to life.

You can view all of the exciting playground projects completed in Yorkshire on our dedicated Yorkshire Playground Projects Page Here.

Two children playing on the drop rope tightrope and two children playing on the log balance weaver with horizontal beam.