Selside Endowed Primary School

Read the testimonial from Selside Endowed Primary School

Background

Selside Endowed CE School is a small school in a rural community near Kendal. We enjoy being in the countryside and woodland around the school and when the opportunity arose to develop a field adjacent to the school we knew that we wanted to create an imaginative space that would become an enabling outdoor environment for all our children.

"From the outset, Primary Landscapes were keen to embrace our creative philosophy and understood our desire to develop a design in harmony with the countryside around the school. The resulting Playscape is a magical and natural space where children are able to explore, discover and imagine…
Children enter the Playscape at different points, either by the sturdy wooden bridge across the beck or the more adventurous can enter through a ‘fairy tale’ gate, following a path of pebbles, and cross the beck on carefully positioned stepping stones. Once across, they can make mud pies in the boggy area watched over by the bog giant, stepping carefully along the specially designed wooden walkways, or play hide and seek in the meadow areas where the grasses and wildflowers grow high. They can find quiet, sheltered spots to reflect and dream, in spaces like the outdoor classroom designed as a sheep fold with a circular dry stone wall and large canvas sails, or, escape to the birch copse with its log seating area to share stories. Criss-crossing the space are a series of natural paths mown into the grass along with  a more substantial slate path which gives access to the whole area. Nothing looks out of place, nothing dictates the way in which the space is used. It is really a very special natural play environment for children to grow up in.

The team behind Primary Landscapes now feel like our friends! Throughout the project they have been helpful, responsive and sympathetic to our needs and keen to provide a highly personalised service. They are always friendly, helpful and professional and hold a wide range of skills and expertise. They completed the project within the given timescale and were most concerned that we were always happy with the work carried out at each stage. Indeed, we now use the services of their grounds maintenance team which has been carefully tailored to our requirements and we are looking forward to working with them in the future as the trees and planting areas begin to mature and develop."

Caronne Field  (Headteacher)

Quotes from the children

"We make houses and dens when the grass is long"

"You can hear crickets in the grass"

"There’s a hill where we can roll down. It’s really fun"

"I enjoy climbing on top of the bog man so that I can see the view"

"I like playing hide and seek in the long grass because you can lie down and no one can see you"

"I like looking for coloured bugs. I have found some gold, green and red bugs"

"I like balancing on the logs and I teach the little ones to play games on them"

"I like crossing the bog with my friends"

"I love the seat-shaped rock where I sit and chill with my friends"

"I love the dugout, it’s shady when you need it, it’s great for relaxing and you can watch what’s going on"

"The paths are great, we run on them, we play games and race along them"

"I love the story corner because you can tell stories to the little ones or just chill out because it’s the quietest place on the field"

"It’s a really big space. You can run around and feel free"

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A completely unique learning outside the classroom project. The natural setting had to be sympathetically and sensitively moulded, utilising the existing relief and ground characteristics.

The result has greatly enhanced the setting as a learning resource and a place for promoting physical fitness and sporting aspirations.

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