The Benefits Of Climbing Frames For Primary School Children

Many schools overlook the significant benefits of climbing frames for the older children in their schools.

With mental wellbeing and physical wellbeing being prominent on schools’ priorities, we are seeing an increase in the use of climbing equipment for KS2 children to promote and improve these.

As they are about to transition to high school, where there may not be climbing equipment, some see climbing frames as unnecessary. However there are many benefits to including climbing equipment in your Year 5 and Year 6 outdoor area, some of which you may have never realised…

• Fundamental movement skills
• Strength
• Flexibility
• Wellbeing
• Mental wellbeing
• Communication and language development
• Introducing sport
• Failure and resolution
• And more!

From this small selection of benefits, you might be able to see how climbing frames are worth having on your playground.

5 Benefits of Climbing Frames

1. Physical Skills for Sports

When children climb on and traverse across climbing equipment, they are developing their overall body strength and other key physical skills such as gross motor skills, balance and coordination. As children manoeuvre themselves from log to log to reach and grip the different ropes, their hand to eye coordination is being further developed.

It is well known that these key skills provide a fantastic advantage when it comes to playing football, basketball and other sports. Providing your children with climbing equipment is an exciting way to ensure they get a head start in high school PE lessons and further sporting activities.

Trim Trails are an active and stimulating way to improve children’s overall physical skills. The equipment can be installed in any order or shape the school would like. With a huge selection of challenges to choose from, schools can target key skills and certain areas of physical development.

These trails can begin with simple stepping logs that develop children’s balance before progressing onto more challenging equipment like climbing walls that develop their fine motor skills and upper and lower body strength.

With our huge selection of trim trail equipment, schools can pick and choose the challenges they’d like to include and how they progress.

2.  Fine Motor Skills for Writing

It is a well-known fact that children love to climb and explore. Not only are these beneficial activities for physical development and a cardiovascular workout, it advances children’s physical literacy including their balance, agility and coordination.

In addition, their literacy skills are also enhanced as it develops fine motor skills – improving pen grip, writing and literacy skills.

Our Log Climbing Frames are designed to give children the feeling of climbing trees, with ropes and rounded logs. They have to grip and grasp the ropes and logs to manoeuvre themselves across the frame.

The movements contribute towards their fine and gross motor skill development through the actions of grasping each rope and using them to balance and move across the frame, further developing children’s writing skills and their hand dexterity.

Climbing equipment is a crucial outdoor resource to ensure children are ready for their high school writing tasks.

3. Social skills

When children climb and explore together, they will naturally talk with one another. Active Play Equipment provides the ideal social area for children. They have a sensation of freedom up above the ground and feel as if they can talk to one another about anything of interest or on their mind.

These amazing resources create a social environment that develops children’s communication and language. As they traverse across, they will talk to each other, stopping every now and then to rest and further the conversation.

Social skills are a much-needed skill for the high school playground therefore climbing equipment is the perfect addition to your playground to create a stimulating social area.

4. Use Up Excess Energy 

We’re all aware of how hyper and excitable KS2 children can get. Teachers will happily welcome climbing equipment into the outdoor area for their classes to use up their excess energy before returning to the classroom.

Short breaks of physical activity have been found to improve concentration, behaviour and memory in primary school children. This has been found to improve children’s academic attainment compared to an addition lesson or revision.

This is extremely helpful for those year 6s who are about to take on their SATs assessments. If children are more focused in lessons, then they will have more of an opportunity to achieve in the upcoming tests.

As well as this, once the SATs tests have arrived, exercise will help them to use up all their excess energy they have from concentrating and sitting still for what feels like an eternity. When the children return to begin the next test, they will be more focused rather than fidgety and agitated from the time they’ve spent sitting still.

5. Setting and Achieving Goals

Climbing equipment helps children understand goals. When they climb, children learn that they can achieve difficult goals, exceed the goals they have set or surprise themselves and reach new goals that they maybe thought they’d never be able to meet.

Because every climb won’t always be a success, they will learn from mistakes they have made and will be able to reflect on what went wrong and how they can achieve their goals next time.

When children don’t succeed in the targets they have set, they will become eager to get back on the equipment and try again until they succeed: teaching children to never give up as they will eventually reach their goals. Alternatively, other children may encourage those who are reluctant to give it another go.

Climbing will also develop children’s social skills, teamwork and cooperation as they encourage one another to reach the goals they have set or climb higher than they did the time before.

Outdoor Children's Climbing Equipment is an important resource, which should be included in every school playground due to the benefits it provides children.

If you are looking for more children's climbing frame ideas, feel free to Contact Us for a free consultation with one of our expert playground consultants.