Yesterday the Department for Education published a section on their website which informs you that applications are now open to help secure funding for schools in the form of ’character grants’. The scheme is in aid of promoting resilience and respect within school life and in particular emphasise their aim of targeting schools that use, e.g. sports activities, to provide a rounded learning for children.

Broadening the range of activities is crucially important across the curriculum and the government is offering this grant as a way of helping to fund such projects. Building up character and resilience is so important as it can give all pupils a sense of confidence and the opportunity the thrive at something. Last year the scheme offered premiership rugby £500,000 for rugby coaches and players.

Safe Play and Sensory Gardens

Synthetic Turf Management provide a whole array of facilities in order to promote resilience and character in pupils. We aim to give all schools outdoor areas that they can use for lots of different activities including PE sessions which are fully inclusive for all children. One of these is our play and sensory SEN gardens.

These type of artificial turf surfaces use different colours and shapes to open up the imagination of pupils and give them a comfortable environment for their interactive learning. Which in turn helps to build character and emphasises resilience as it can be a place to come to and bounce back from the difficulties of classroom learning.

The use of colourful synthetic turf allows for an attractive area that children can use to develop resilience and respect. This can be a centre point for such activities as directed by the teachers.

Sports

Sports are at the centre of a lot of government schemes as there are a number of other benefits than just improving/promoting physical health. It can often be difficult to get every child to join in with a particular sport however with the appropriate facilities that encourage pupils to take part in sports more can go a long way! Skills such as teamwork in sports games help to develop respect among peers as there is a certain set of rules to adhere to.

Let’s take a look at a sports project that we completed before at Cullercoats Primary School. Prior to STM installing a hockey based MUGA there were very limited facilities to play the sport on in the school. 7 years on and there is a very established hockey team that have been in the regional finals representing their school! This was a huge accomplishment and just shows that the correct facilities can have a huge impact on the lives of children and their achievement.

Cullercoats Hockey Team

So if you think that an artificial turf surface could be the key to developing resilience and respect in schools, apply for the government funding for schools scheme