I initially joined Pentagon Play, back in 2005, as a junior sales consultant. Over the last 13 years I have worked in all areas of the business, learning how things go together, designing new products and understanding how the market works. This has given me a very all-round approach to the business and aided me in helping schools to plan and develop their play spaces.
I love my position within Pentagon Play, and feel I have the best job in the world. I am a big kid at heart and this position gives me the opportunity to design playgrounds that I would have loved to play on, back when I was at school. I like to look at how best to zone a school playground when designing outdoor spaces for schools, looking at the 7 areas of learning and seeing how our equipment can help further develop what happens in the classroom. It’s important to ensure that there is something for every child, whether it be a hectic game of football (in a sports enclosure) or a quiet reading area, where friendships can be made.
The design process is extremely enjoyable, invariably starting off as a meeting with the school council and a myriad of questions being fired at me! It is here where I get to hear some great thoughts and ideas on our play equipment and gain a better understanding of how, if money was no object, the children would design their play areas. It then gives me great satisfaction, upon fruition of these projects, to return to the school and see your children enjoying using the equipment.
I myself have great memories of my time at school; I was involved in all the after-school sports activities and loved my playtimes – in fact, my parents had to take me to school 30 minutes before the bell rang just so that my friends and I could play before school started! I will forever remember using jumpers for goal posts, as we played football on the tarmac in the winter and feeling like I had won the lottery when the weather turned nice and the teachers allowed us to play on the fields. I consider myself very lucky to have had a fabulous time at Primary School and am extremely fortunate to now have a job that lets me stay young at heart and create fantastic experiences for today’s children.
