Primary School Play
Award winning artists Snug & Outdoor and Sutcliffe Play, one
of the leading designers and manufacturers of children’s play
equipment, have announced the arrival of ‘Snug’, a
revolutionary new concept for school playgrounds.
The Snug kit is designed to transform bleak playgrounds into
dynamic and creative playscapes for children to explore, create,
discover and learn. The kit, comprising nine large scale,
inter-related, colourful, flexible shapes can be reconfigured by
children to vary their surroundings.
The Snug concept is the result of a fifteen year process of
research and evaluation into the way that children behave, react
and play in specific environments. The inclusion of the kit into
schools will allow children to develop new ways of playing and
encourages creativity, social interaction and cooperation.
Brother & sister team, Tim and Hattie Coppard, Directors of
Snug & Outdoor, and the artists behind Snug, have extensive
experience in designing imaginative projects for school
playgrounds. Their motivation to develop Snug came from observing
how bleak and barren environments can create aggressive and
stressed children.
Hattie comments, "We've seen how the Snug kit can transform the
culture in a school playground, helping children take control of
their play, so they can learn for themselves about social skills,
friendship, imagination, physical exploration and fun."
It is for this reason that the nine large flexible Snug shapes
can be moved, joined and arranged by children themselves, to create
new environments for play including places to perform, dens and
sanctuaries.
Snug changes the established patterns of behaviour in the school
playground by engaging children’s imaginations and giving
them the satisfaction of being able to change their own
surroundings.
Snug is soft and tactile yet robust enough to withstand the rigours
of the playground. The Snug shapes are easy to fit together
and can be moved, locked or taken apart by children, used
individually or together as part of a landscape.
Head teacher Helen Fletcher-Davies of South Farnborough School
trialled Snug and vouches for the benefits and the changes it
brings to the playground, “Snug changes the way children
behave and interact, the creativity is fantastic, it’s
enriched their language and children will get the benefit of this
for years.”
In addition to the fun element and the dramatic impact that the kit
has on how a traditional school playground looks and feels, Snug
provides a creative resource that supports learning and government
initiatives, including Every Child Matters and Learning outside the
Classroom.
As the obesity war rages on and new solutions are sought to
encourage children to be more active Snug also provides an
excellent way for children to expend energy.
As pupils engage with Snug and become involved in creating their
own surroundings they are constantly moving the pieces around,
creating a focus for physical activity, far more than with
conventional play spaces.
An in depth independent evaluation carried out by Fiona Godfrey
concluded “At all key stages Snug was seen to have a
particular contribution to make to the social and emotional aspects
of children’s development and learning….. (Snug) was
observed to facilitate children’s own creativity; with
children seen exercising their curiosity, exploring possibilities,
making connections between different objects and between objects
and ideas, experimenting, trying things out, taking risks, testing
and reviewing, using and showing their creations and being
motivated to solve problems.”
Generous funding from NESTA (National Endowment for Science,
Technology and the Arts), Arts Council and the Esmée
Fairbairn Charitable Foundation, enabled Snug & Outdoor to join
forces with the Design Laboratory at Central St Martin’s
College of Art and the Institute of Education at London University,
to thoroughly research and test the Snug design.
Helen Gresty, Executive Director of Innovation Programmes at NESTA
said;
“We’ve learnt that creativity and a healthy attitude to
play are going to be some of the most vital skills for young people
in the future. Snug’s innovative design challenges young
minds at the earliest stage and encourages creative thinking. We
look forward to following the success of Snug.”
The kit is being manufactured by Sutcliffe Play based in Upton,
West Yorkshire.
“From the first time that I saw Snug at a seminar with
Hattie, I knew that this product embodied all the core values and
principles of Sutcliffe Play, child centred, innovative and well
designed and I knew that the original creative partners needed us
to turn it from dream to reality”, concludes Robin Sutcliffe,
Managing Director of Sutcliffe Play.
Learn more about Sutcliffe Play visit www.sutcliffeplay.co.uk