An Exciting Active Play Area for Sudbourne Primary School

The Customer

Delivering a fantastic level of education to the children of Brixton in London, Sudbourne Primary School has garnered the reputation of being a warm and friendly school that helps children across London achieve things. Ran by the amazing Mr James Broad and his team, Sudbourne is a benchmark for many primary schools in London.

With over 280 pupils attending this school, Sudbourne Primary has recieved plenty of praise from Ofsted regarding the inclusivity of the school and how the core values and vision are seamlessly integrated within the school. Not only do Ofsted think highly of this school, but so do hundreds of parents and guardians.

Recently, the school moved to a new site and wanted to take this opportunity to make variety of improvements that were in high demand. One area which the school were excited to develop was the active play area. As the new playground was a blank canvas, the school were excited to start populating it.

Meeting The Customer

Jo Chevalier, PSHE Lead, first came across Pentagon Play in 2022, when she was looking for a playground equipment manufacturer that could create engaging active play equipment with each piece having an innovative design.

During her search for the perfect playground equipment company, she actually found out that we worked with Sudbourne back in 2018 on another project. After having conversations with staff who were around during that period, she discovered how highly rated we were amongst our customer base and she decided to reach out to us.

Whilst Jo was having a conversation with one of our friendly and approachable sales executives, Jo explained how she was really impressed with our catalogue and felt like our company values lined up perfectly with Sudbourne's values too.

Their Objectives

Jo was given access to our brochure and professional recommendations. After months of internal debates and receiving amazing support from our Outdoor Learning Consultants, Jo took a particular liking to a few specific pieces of playground equipment.

Once we knew a rough idea of what the school wanted, we sent the amazing Sam Flatman (Head of Sales in the South and Co-Owner) to liaise with Jo and the school to talk through the idea. Instantly, it was clear that the school wanted this area to naturally promote active play and keep children physically active.

Another factor the school wanted to achieve was making the outdoor play area more exciting and engaging. Sudbourne felt like their previous playground equipment lacked imagination and excitement, causing children to lose interest in playing outdoors. By having new and unique play equipment, the school hopes to bring life back to the playground.

Our Approach

With over 25 years of expertise and a track record of transforming more than 15,000 unique locations, Pentagon Play has established itself as one of the UK's premier playground equipment providers. Our ongoing success is driven by a steadfast commitment to enhancing our services for our clients.

What makes Pentagon Play unique? We have refined the customer experience to feel like joining a family. From recieving our famous 3D visualisations from our talented visualisation team to having access to our after care team, we want to make sure that your time with us is unforgettable. In addition, we recently launched our Inspections and Maintenance service, which means you can keep your playground in tip-top condition with our RPII-accredited inspectors.

Playturf

The first step in creating Sudbourne's ideal active play area started with surfacing, in particular they were looking for a surface which provided a natural look whilst being impact absorbent. After looking through all of the available options, the school decided to select Playturf Artificial Grass.

Constructed from high-quality materials and woven to high standards, Pentagon Play's Playturf has passed FIFA's rigorous durability tests and has a 10-year guarantee attached to it. Sudbourne primary loved the guarantee that was attached to the surfacing and saw the economic advantages that it provided.

Beneath the Playturf, a layer of our state-of-the-art shock absorbers are installed, creating a surface which minimises the chance of a severe injury occurring in your area. As the school wanted the playground to be a safe space to explore, this made the surface type even more desirable.

Not only is Playturf one of the safest surfacing options for a playground, but it's also incredibly customisable. Available in nearly all shapes, sizes and colours, Playturf can make any playground become an engaging space for imaginations to run wild. Wanting to make their active play space more engaging, the school fell in love with Playturf.

Bowfell Climber

Perfect for building children's climbing confidence and keeping them active, the Bowfell Climber is an impressive climbing frame that is sure to make an instant impact on any playground it's placed on.

Built from high pressure treated 'play grade' timber and steel reinforced ropes, the Bowfell Climber has been constructed to withstand heavy usage and poor weather conditions. Not only does this make the equipment safer, but it also makes the Bowfell Climber a great long term investment.

Even though the Bowfell Climber is built for young adventurers to explore and climb all over, children can also use the structure for den-making, reading and relaxation during play. Considering the school wanted the new play area to be imaginative and engaging, they were excited to incorporate this amazing piece of play equipment.

Out of all the climbing frames we have manufactured and designed, the Bowfell Climber has always remained a firm favourite amongst our customer base. Sudbourne primary viewed some of our reviews revolving around this climbing frame and were blown away by the glowing reputation it had accumulated.

Trim Trail

After the rest of the play area was installed, the school still felt like something was missing. Wanting something to encircle the Bowfell Climber, the school discovered one of Pentagon Play's most famous ranges, the Trim Trail range.

Including a variety of challenges, each trim trail piece can be combined with another to create a truly unique and memorable Trim Trail experience. Hearing this, Jo and Sudbourne Primary loved the idea of having a memorable piece of play equipment present on the playground, which also includes a variety of interesting challenges.

Each piece of a trim trail has been constructed from the highest quality materials available within the industry and has been designed by a team of experts who have worked closely with hundreds of education experts and teachers. Just like hundreds of schools before them, Sudbourne Primary could see the quality and the expertise built into the product when they laid their eyes on it.

Creating their bespoke Trim Trail, Sam Flatman worked closely with Jo to design the perfect obstacle course that would surround the Bowfell Climber. Once Jo was happy, she decided that she wanted her trim trail to include:

From improving a child's fine motor skills to developing a child's muscles and bones, the bespoke Trim Trail created by Sudbourne Primary is not only designed to keep children engaged and excited, but it's designed to help children develop and engage in physical activity which benefits them.

The Results

After a few months had passed, the school contacted us and told us how happy they were with the final product and invited us back to view the active play area. Eagerly, we accepted and made are way back to this fantastic primary school.

Once we arrived, we instantly saw a group of children actively engaging with the play equipment and overcoming a variety of challenges presented by the trim trail. A few teachers told us how the children were naturally becoming more active and adopting new, healthy play habits.

Speaking to the teachers in more detail, the staff were incredibly impressed by the quality of the product and how safe the area was. One teacher even stated how great the new Playturf surfacing was at absorbing trips and falls.

After gathering our feedback, we finally spoke to Jo and asked her opinion. She was over the moon with the final result and wouldn't have chosen anyone else for the job.

We hope the children of Sudbourne Primary School continue to push themselves to new heights with their fantastic active play area. It was a pleasure working with this school and hope that they'll select Pentagon Play again for their playground needs!