A Special Educational Tool Talk For Nursery and Reception

In collaboration with Gee Cross Holy Trinity Primary School, located in Hyde, our team worked alongside the children and staff to design a fantastic outdoor play and learning environment.

Meeting with our design team and presenting the schools project objectives, budget and ‘must haves’, they got to work creating a realistic looking playground environment that would give the school’s children and teachers a real view of what the new area would look like.

Once the design presentation had been completed, our team headed back to the school to present the design to the staff and children to gather their feedback and ensure it transformed their playground ideas into the reality they were hoping for - they were absolutely delighted with the proposed design and project!

Since it is our priority to make the installation process special, educational and fun for children, Gee Cross opted to have their installation completed during term time.

With an installation taking place while the children were in school, it ensured that the reception and nursery classes could truly benefit from a term time installation: enhancing their understanding of the world and learning more about the exciting world of construction being just a few.

Before our tool box talk took place, the children had demonstrated a real inquisitive nature about the what our installers had been doing on their school playground, watching the real-life project come to life overtime.

The children were in awe when they were outside for playtime, watching the installers and asking questions about what they were doing and how they were building their new playground. It even become a favourite activity during playtime!

The Tool Box Talk

During the tool box talk, we split the nursery and reception classes up into two groups for safety and to allow all of the children to participate in the talk and ask as many questions as they like.

Once split into groups, we then invited the teachers to bring a group of children on to our site to take a closer look at what’s going on and what’s involved in the build – of course, with their own mini Hi-Vis Vests and Hard Hats.

The children could see all of the different tools we were using to install their new playground equipment and got to learn first hand about the design, engineering, machinery, materials and physical work that goes into creating their new outdoor play and learning environment while on the construction site, supervised by our staff and the school staff, too.

Our installers, Steve Robinson and Steve Kelsall, have many, many years of experience working in schools and around the children. Friendly and knowledgeable, they were ready to answer any questions thrown at them by the children.

They were indeed kept busy as they answered everything the children had asked about their new playground and the installation itself.

As the installation had been progressing for a few days before the children were able to go onto the site, it had seen a few of the new play products completed. So our staff went through each product individually and the children even got to have a first go at some of the play equipment that was safe to use!

Because the new area had been designed for both the nursery and reception children, the school wanted both of their classes to head outside and participate in the exciting tool box talk. Our fantastic visualiser, Laura Harvey, designed a wonderful colouring in sheet from the schools playground design.

While one group of children were outside the other was happily colouring in their very own playground design, with a few producing amazing, creative artistic masterpieces along the way!

Overall, all of the children had a fantastic time taking part in the tool box talk as they explored a different job roles, a real construction site with plenty of tools to look at and machinery used and had a first glimpse of their new playground and some of the equipment they’ll be able to use soon.

Once this fantastic project has been complete, we can’t wait to go back to the school to see the children really value, appreciate and enjoy their new play area even more as they have been involved in the process from start to finish.

The children are very excited about the completion of this project and can’t wait to spend many hours learning through play in their new environment!

We offer a free, expert consultation service for any school or nursery wishing to develop their playground to enhance outdoor learning and play. If you’d like to improve your outdoor environment, please feel free to Contact Us. We’d love to transform your playground dream into a reality and provide your children with an insight into the world of construction with one of our Toolbox Training Workshops, too.