Fun paving ideas for schools should touch on safety as well as aesthetics. Discover reliable SureSet products and learn how you can use them outdoors.
Fun Paving Ideas for Schools
Whether it is a new project or a refurbishment, installing paving at a school can be a challenging task. You want something that is more than just a stable surface, which is why fun paving ideas for schools are so important.
Paving in places of learning should minimise risks to safety, work in harmony with the environment and help create an inviting atmosphere for children. With SureSet, you can achieve all of this efficiently and effectively.
Let’s take a closer look at how schools can transform their outdoor spaces.
Paving Areas Appropriately
One of the most important things to do when planning a project at a school is to choose paving that is appropriate for the area. In some spaces such as courtyards, walkways or pathways leading from staff parking to the admin area, neutral colours are acceptable.
In other areas, such as those around classrooms or playgrounds, it is important to include fun paving for schools, which can help create a pleasant environment for children and teachers. In spaces in which pupils, children from other schools, parents, and occasionally members of the public gather, you can opt for neutral colours or for colours and designs that are relevant to the school.
Paving for schools will be different from that used in public spaces, corporate spaces and the home. Public spaces, as well as office and home environments, are generally kept neutral, and may not include safety features such as shock pads.
The Importance of Coloured Paving
The effect of colour on mind and mood have been recognised since ancient times. For decades, many schools have made effective use of colour in learning and recreational environments as it can influence behaviour, mood, and educational performance. One of the easiest ways to do this outside the classroom is through fun paving ideas for schools.
SureSet’s colourful PlayBound resin bound paving is perfect for bringing colour into playgrounds and other recreational areas.
A few examples of the effects of colour include:
- Red – Grabs attention, stimulates appetite and excitement and encourages creativity
- Orange – Stimulates communication and creates a sense of energy, excitement, and warmth
- Yellow – Instils a sense of optimism, aids attention and stimulates creativity
- Green – Relieves stress, suggests calmness and growth, and creates a healing atmosphere
- Blue – A comforting colour that creates a sense of calmness, peace, and security
The Importance of Safety
It should go without saying that fun paving ideas for schools should take safety into consideration. In 2013, more than £3 million was paid out in compensation for injuries that occurred in school playgrounds. Injuries sustained by slipping or stumbling on an inadequate surface, or by falling from playground equipment can severely affect a person’s quality of life, if not be life-threatening.
When you choose SuDS-compliant SureSet, you are selecting a product that can help minimise safety risks. For starters, our resin-bound paving is permeable, which allows rainwater and snowmelt to drain away. This prevents puddles and patches of ice from forming, which lowers the risk of slipping.
Secondly, before the resin-bound rubber paving is put in place, a compacted stone base is laid. The base is covered with a shock pad at a depth of 25mm. The shock pad is then covered with a 15mm layer of resin-coated rubber PlayBound. This reduces the force of impact and creates a wonderful playing surface for kids who are jumping, skipping, running, or doing gymnastics.
Fun Paving Ideas
Below are just a few fun paving ideas for schools that you could incorporate. In addition to neutral coloured and colourful PlayBound paving, SureSet also offers Spectrum, which is recycled glass that can add even more colour to your projects.
Promoting School Spirit
Enhance school spirit by incorporating the school’s logo or colours into a paved area used for ceremonial purposes. The gathering point outside the school hall, a main quadrangle, or a terrace near the rugby field could be spruced up in a way that instils pride in the institution and that leaves no doubt in visitors’ minds about where they are.
Get the Children Involved
Fun paving for schools does not need to begin and end with the laying of a surface. You can get the children involved in various ways. One of them is to run a competition for designs to be used in the playground. If the paving is to be laid outside classrooms or in areas specific to one or another form, the design can be a collaborative effort among the pupils.
Work with Nature
There are various ways that you can incorporate nature into paved surfaces. One of them is to create beds with neat edges or low walls. The beds can be used for eco-gardens, vegetable patches, or other projects that can teach children about the cycles of nature, permaculture, or sustainability. The garden will be contained within the bed, while the rest of the area will be paved in natural aggreagtes.
Alternatively, use SureSet’s resin-bound tree pits to allow you to plant new trees in an area or to protect trees already in the space to be paved. Tree pits make it easier to keep the space clean, they offer protection to trees’ roots and their permeability allows more water to reach the roots.
Create Different Play Spaces with Colour
Use Natural or coloured Spectrum to create different hardscaped areas within the playground. Use red, orange, and yellow in areas intended for energetic physical activity, and buffs, tans and green in areas designated for quiet, relaxing moments.
Thanks to 2008 government legislation, you do not need planning permission for school paving if the surface is permeable. With SureSet, permeable paving that is durable and easy to maintain is exactly what you get.