Playground Surface

When a local primary school got in touch, we were pleased to get to work straight away. We designed an artificial turf surface to replace 650m2 of natural turf. Real grass can get extremely messy and, what’s more, unsafe for school pupils when the weather is wet and cold (more often than not!).  An artificial grass playground surface can be a great alternative to traditional playground surfaces such as concrete and natural turf. It’s soft, safe and can be installed with an additional shock absorbency pad to break the fall of students.

We were pleased to hear that this primary school saw results immediately upon the installation of their synthetic turf. Head teacher, Tom Gittins, said:

“We have seen a reduction in injuries and an increase in children wanting to play outside on the new surface.” – Tom Gittins (Head Teacher)

STM EPIC

STM has worked in partnership with schools for years, so we know what’s important to teachers, students and staff. Getting kids outside is a great way to encourage learning in a creative and fun way; it’s a proven method of getting pupils active, as well as interactive with teachers. That’s why we’ve developed our very own system designed to encourage this kind of learning; we call it STM EPIC or “Education and Play in Colour”.

MUGA

This leads us to the second project that we completed for the school. MUGAs (Multi Use Games Areas) are becoming an increasingly popular choice for school sports areas. Made from a range of different synthetic turfs, a MUGA incorporates several sports into a single pitch. Pitch markings mean that one synthetic pitch can be used for sports such as football, hockey, tennis and netball. It’s a great way of maximising space and budget.

We designed a 1500m2 MUGA that supported the school curriculum and enhanced the school’s ability to deliver sports development objectives. The school’s MUGA includes:

• Running tracks
• Hockey pitch markings
• Mini tennis court markings
• Football pitch markings
• Netball pitch markings

Again, we achieved success, with Tim Gittins saying:

“The teachers and children love the new surfaces. We use them all the time where previously we were restricted in our ability to provide safe play and sport surface for children to develop their skills.

Our new surfaces requires very little, if any, maintenance compared to what we were forced to invest into the play areas in the past, and we have seen a significant reduction in cost on our cleaning material due to less dirt and mud being brought from the play areas into the class rooms.” – Tom Gittins Head teacher