Earlier this year Emma was honored to be asked to help
provide copy for Groundnotes on how to plan for your playground markings
project. We hope the following article will prove useful for your school
project.
This Groundnotes looks at how you can plan new or replacement playground markings. If you are starting from a blank canvas for your whole grounds, don’t rush straight into assuming you need playground markings, or that you need them in a particular area. Take time to assess your whole site, its strengths and weaknesses, and how you are using it, as well as analyse the school’s needs. The advice in this Groundnotes is for when you have carried out your initial planning and are ready to move ahead with this aspect.
Why playground markings?
Playground markings can help schools address a number of issues. They can support all areas of the curriculum; promote physical fitness; provide resources for PE lessons; facilitate behaviour management. Research shows that playground markings can:
- Increase children’s physical activity levels;
-
Decrease bullying and playground confrontations;
Reduce playground injuries; - Encourage children’s participation in the traditional games and play activities which support social as well as physical development.
(The effects of playground markings on children’s physical activity levels: a review of scientifically based research, Olivia Bissell, 2004)
Different types of markings
Playground markings can be temporary or permanent, and there are a number of options.
Chalk is very short lived but offers the best option for games such as noughts and crosses. Pavement art is always a favourite with children. A smooth area of tarmac or paving slabs works best as a chalking surface.
Emulsion,
gloss or road paint can be used. The latter will last the longest and
can be applied with aerosol sprays. Paint should be applied to a reasonably
smooth and grit-free surface, so sweep the playground before applying.
The older and rougher the surface, the shorter lifespan your markings
will have. Check the paint cans for health and safety information –
particularly consider fumes while painting and the toxicity of the paint
itself. Paint should not be applied in very cold or very hot weather or
on damp surfaces.
Thermoplastic playground markings are made from the same material used
for marking lines on roads, providing hard-wearing, vivid colours. The
Thermoplastic is melted onto the playground surface, bonding the material
to the asphalt.
Paving units are particularly suitable for checkerboards and hopscotchs, as well as trails and geometric patterns. You can use different coloured pre-case concrete slabs, or small unit paving like bricks and setts (cobbles).
Starting your playground markings project
Summer is the traditional time to think about markings: however, playground contractors get very busy during the summer months and could easily be booked up by the end of June, which could mean delays for your project. Contractors will also need time to process schools’ orders, especially if they are producing bespoke graphics which need to be made to order. Planning your markings during the winter will mean that you can have the graphics fitted in the spring.
As with any school grounds project, your new playground markings will be only as good as the team of people working on it. As such, organising a committed team of pupils, contractors and adults (parents/teachers/lunchtime assistants) who will make decisions and move the project forward is essential. As the main users of the space, children should have real influence over the development of your markings. Involving pupils in schools grounds projects has the same impact as involving pupils in their own learning; they will ‘own’ it and therefore respect and care more for it. The process makes the space ‘belong’ to them. To have their ideas listened to, recognised and realised is an incredibly empowering experience for pupils; it shows them that they can have a positive impact on their environment. Many schools find that their existing School Council is exactly the right body to include in markings projects: make sure that mechanisms are in place for each Council member to collect ideas from their classes and to feedback information.
If you have not already surveyed your grounds as part of the initial planning process, take some time now to observe how the playground, and in particular any existing markings, are being used. Are their playground problems – such as dominance of the space by subsections of pupils – which you want to be able to solve? What types of activities do you want to provide for through the markings – think about lesson time as well as playtime? Look carefully at the area you are planning to use for the markings to assess the quality of the surface, and also note existing landscape features, particularly those with areas of wet pour/soft surfacing (when fixing thermoplastic markings heat is used, so a good half metre gap should be planned between those and rubber surfaces). These may influence your eventual choice of markings.
What do we want to achieve?
Playground markings are particularly useful as a key element of “zoning” your playground, to allow different activities to take place without conflict. This can be particularly valuable to more vulnerable children, who may feel intimidated by the hustle and bustle of the playground. Surface lines and graphics, linked to agreed playground rules, can indicate what type of play is appropriate, and where. Often, schools have traditions such as where to line up at the end of play, to end the session in an orderly way, ready for the next lesson to begin. These can be incorporated into your playgrounds markings design.
A well planned playground will cater for both sports and creative games and play in a balanced way. Some areas can be designated for ball games, whilst others are for small games and activities. Such zones provide a useful tool for avoiding confrontation and keeping behaviour management in the playground positive: “OK Bill, you see the yellow line? Well, behind it it’s OK to play football”.
Two other areas worth considering when planning are “Quiet Areas” and “Buddy Stops”. Designating a Quiet Area with lines, lettering and logos is a good way of creating a little calm, away from the ‘hurley burley’ of the rest of the playground. In this area, seating and shade are desirable, and more sedentary games such as Nought & Crosses or Chess can be played. Buddy Stops help to support schools’ Inclusion strategies. Pupils waiting at the Stops alert the playground community (children and adults) to anyone who is feeling alone or left out. It can then work to resolve the situation, improving the social skills of all involved.
Buddy
Stop Quiet Area
When planning the situation of games and activities take into account
Health & Safety requirements. Make sure there is enough ‘run
off’ space at the end of a running track, and be careful what you
plan behind a goal mouth. Cramming games too tightly together makes them
unusable. Think about doorways and disabled access and leave enough space
for this. If you need the edges of steps marked for Health and Safety
reasons, then this is an issue your markings contractor can deal with
too.
Designing your markings
By the time you have consulted pupils, parents and teachers, and looked at the space and how you would like to use it, the design should be starting to take shape. You can choose “off-the-peg” graphics from specialist playground marking suppliers, but the freshest ideas come from the pupils themselves. A good contractor will be able to provide you with bespoke designs based on children’s drawings, so do ask about this service and be imaginative. Some markings contractors produce resources to help with the planning stage, such as sticker books and printable graphics to cut and paste with. These are good resources for classroom activities, as are contractors’ brochures and websites.
An
effective way of working is to choose a theme for certain areas; this
helps to make the design more cohesive. It may be that you have a sound
or sensory area planned which may help to shape the design. Existing murals
and equipment can produce design ideas for markings. An ‘underwater’
themed mural by the sand and water play would suggest ocean themed games
and graphics (a Treasure Island or a Shell Hopscotch). A train climbing
frame would lend itself perfectly to train track markings and associated
railway buildings’ graphics. Let the landscape itself shape the
design. Traditional games such as Hopscotch and Snakes and Ladders can
be customised to fit in with your theme.
Many schools choose to build their games and activities into an activity
trail. This helps to relate single graphics to one another.
Rather than leaping straight from paper designs to expensive permanent markings, why not experiment with temporary markings? Chalk or poster paint can be used to try out ideas and see how children would react to the new markings – you may uncover unexpected problems with your plans, or spot improvements you can make. You may even find that the short life-span of such markings is a positive advantage, allowing fresh new ideas every few days. Household emulsion paint can be used for markings with a slightly longer life-span – an appeal to parents is likely to result in plenty of part-used tins of paint left over from decorating.
Turning your designs into reality
By the time you bring in a contractor, you may already have a scale drawing with all your designs chosen and priced, or you may still need help from the contractors to bring the designs and the budget together. Experienced contractors encounter all these scenarios and are well equipped to help schools to move on to the next stage in the process: agreeing a quotation and fitting the markings.
Most schools will invite three contractors to bid for their playground work; you can then compare designs and prices. Again, inviting pupils to take part in this process is invaluable experience for them. Remember that initial designs are not cast in stone, if pupils would like changes made, edited designs can be easily produced. If you want to re-arrange things or your ideas have developed, tell your contractor before confirming your order. Ask your contractor what their time scale is for installation: a week or two is usual. Most contractors will offer some sort of guarantee: with thermoplastic, five years would be appropriate.
The surface to which you are applying thermoplastic markings will need to be looked at carefully. The bond between the plastic and the tarmac, forms between the resin on the plastic and the tar. There needs to be a good amount of tar in the tarmac for a successful bond to take place. New tarmac, therefore, will afford the very best bond. On sites where there is little or no tar in the surface, with old or tightly packed agregate, or with concrete or brick surfaces, thermoplastic can still be used. In these situations contractors can use a special primer to create a bond with the stone. This will affect the time the job takes and possibly the cost. It will also affect the Health & Safety risk assessment as the primer contains solvent .
All surfaces need to be clean for a bond to take place effectively. In most cases a good sweep will be sufficient. However, some surfaces may need jet-washing, if dirt and dust has become ingrained. This can be the case when the area is close to grass or under a tree.
If you have old markings which you wish to have removed, there are a number of ways of doing this. The most effective method is a low pressure blasting system. It will remove old painted and thermoplastic markings completely, but it can be expensive and messy. Secondly, contractors can paint out old painted markings, but this is temporary and will fade in time. Thirdly, contractors can try to burn off old painted markings (you should ask your contractor about this). The last option is the easiest: simply ignore the old markings and let them fade away in time.
Funding your markings
Schools work with their budgets in all sorts of different ways. Sometimes the money for markings comes from the whole school budget, sometimes from departmental budgets such as PE. Often, the money will be provided in whole or in part by the Parent Teachers Association or Friends of the School. However the money is raised, it is best to be clear with contractors what your budget is. This way they can design you a playground you can afford. If you have a grand ‘vision’ of how you would like your markings to be, you might decide to work towards this over a number of years. Contractors can be flexible and should be able to produce you a complete design which they can then break down into manageable chunks to fit in with the budget and with the school development plan (over three years for example).
Most playground markings companies will be happy to discuss special offers according to the size of the order. You should also look for special offers on suppliers’ websites and circulars as well as check the LTL Professional Directory for suppliers who offer discounts to Schoolgrounds-UK members. If you shop around you can get 10% more games for your money. Many contractors will also have a minimum charge, this varies considerably between them. If your playground is only very small, consider joining with another school to make up the charge.
This
Groundnotes was written with the support of Emma Lucas of Positive Playgrounds.
www.positiveplaygrounds.co.uk
TEL: 01702 559709
Inspiring Images for Secondary Schools
Perhaps one of the largest areas for growth in playground markings is in the Secondary sector. Other than for sports markings, however, there isn’t really a tradition for using markings at KS3 and 4. With new developments in the materials available for playground markings, it is possible to produce more sophisticated designs. The chunky, cartoon-like markings produced with a pot and mould is almost a thing of the past. With new pre-formed thermoplastic markings, it is possible to produce graphics with much more detail. Graphics are now cut out of sheets of thin plastic and inlaid together like giant jigsaws. Then a second layer of plastic can be used to add further detail. We can now cut out a centimetre disc as opposed to the 100ml square of a mould. Basically, if a school requires an image we can produce it in thermoplastic.
Secondary schools seem to have started using thermoplastic (mainly for its longevity) with their sports markings. Most contractors will offer a guarantee which limits the cost of keeping markings looking good and making them more appealing to the students. Secondary schools should keep in mind the bursaries obtainable for having their courts available to community groups and the public. Their courts must, however, be standard Sports England sizes to be eligible for them. Grants for courts are available from the lottery fund. Some companies are even starting to offer HP. Use thermoplastic to remark old netball courts or ask contractors to produce you a multi-court based on your school’s traditional sports. All courts are available and running tracks with sizes to suit.
There are markings contractors traditionally use which could be used in Secondary schools; maps, compasses, 100 number grids and times table grids would all be useful tools. The best work in the Secondary sector is yet to come. We have had ideas for graphics such as; quotes from Shakespeare, equations, the periodic table, the carbon and nitrogen cycle. As an often visited space the playground is perfect for positive affirmations and graphics. The interaction between wall boards and surface graphics also presents opportunities for more sophisticated games. Positive Playgrounds has research projects for a Dance choreography game aimed at KS3 and an environmental game, which combines the magnetic wall board with surface graphics. We are also looking at schemes of work for KS3 and 4 which use the theatre backdrop and graphics as an outside performance space for English and Drama.
The ‘Playground Circle’ was originally designed for Secondary schools. I had been asked by my previous Head Teacher to consider how to use Drama strategies across the Curriculum. We know students enjoy role play, but it can be difficult to manage in a classroom full of desks and chairs. The answer was in the playground. As long as the weather is fine, the playground is the perfect cleared space for games and warm ups. The ‘Playground Circle’ comes with a collection of 12 games designed for cross-curricular lessons outside. Whilst only one Secondary school has a circle so far, it has been used extensively in Primary schools in London and Essex. It is brilliant to see classes of students outside on a lovely day, completing exercises which will improve their group work and social interactions as well as consolidate learning in the classroom. It appeals to the kinaesthetic learners we find hard to reach in the classroom environment. Details are available via Positive Playgrounds. You are very welcome to download the games and try them out with chalk first. Come to us when you know they work and want to make the markings more permanent.
During some market research in an Essex Secondary school, one particularly thoughtful year 10 class suggested labelling school buildings with relevant subject graphics so that new students could find their way around. A fantastically useful way of brightening-up concrete and tarmac.
So look again at those grey spaces. They are really, blank canvasses. We can improve break times in Secondary schools just as we can in Primary schools; we just need to let ourselves think outside the hopscotch-box. Better still, ask the students. Run a competition with the Year 10 Graphic Design group. Let the School Council prove that every young person can have a positive impact on their environment.