Matthew Flinders Anglian College has created a new nature playground in its Junior Primary campus for students from Prep to Year 3.
Flinders Head of Primary, Mrs Trudi Edwards said the students had given the new playspace their stamp of approval.
The playground opened on Tuesday, 16 February, and students wasted no time exploring their new pole home: climbing, running, jumping, crawling, sliding, swinging, digging, pumping water, balancing on rocks, and exploring the creek bed.
To see the playground in action, watch this short video clip.
“We are delighted to open this new nature playground as a dedicated space for our youngest students from Prep to Year 3 to enjoy,” Trudi said.
“We invited our Preps to be the first to explore and it’s clearly a thumbs up from them!
“Students have been longingly watching through the fence as this playground has taken shape over the past few weeks, and they are ecstatic to finally make it theirs.”
Head of Junior Primary, Ms Chris Curtain said the College was committed to building outdoor playspaces to support children’s development.
“We know that outdoor play, particularly in the early years, helps children to build physical competence and also encourages social interaction,” Chris said.
"Front of mind was for this playspace to nurture our students' physical, social and emotional skills,” she said.
"The space also provides engaging sensory experiences as this is proven to help children form a positive sense of self and to better understand their world."
The bespoke playground features wooden decks with rope bridges, a slide, ladders, poles and climbing walls to help students’ physical development.
Under these decks is the perfect space for creative and imaginative games and building.
There’s also a mud kitchen, builders’ yard and creek bed with water pump for students to explore and develop their thinking and problem-solving capacity.
Designed with natural wood and decorated with a painted jungle mural, the playground complements the College's natural campus environment with its established trees for shade.
The College selected the Everything Outside design. It responds to the College's 'Character and Culture' pillar of the Flinders Strategic Plan.
It meets the goal: ‘To nurture the personal development of all students, enhancing their cognitive, physical, social, spiritual and emotional self’.
