Primary school De Schakel in Eindhoven wanted a schoolyard where children have space, can meet each other, where there is something for every type of child and that especially challenges children. BOERplay took up the challenge.
Peter Leenhouwers is director of De Schakel primary school in Eindhoven. De Schakel is a neighborhood school that has attracted more and more children from outside the neighborhood in recent years. “We are now a slightly growing school with just over 200 students.”
Leenhouwers joined De Schakel eleven years ago. A survey among students, teachers and parents showed that 90 percent would prefer to be the first to tackle the schoolyard. And I understood that. It was a large plain with cracked and broken asphalt. It didn’t look like much. ” It resulted in the schoolyard being tiled and provided with some nice play equipment.
Other needs
In the long run, however, that turned out not to be enough. Over the years, the school population changed. And partly because of this also the need to make our education more challenging. Both inside and outside the classroom. The square also had to be challenging enough. In any case, the size offered sufficient possibilities.
Leenhouwers was looking for a partner to translate De Schakel’s vision into the schoolyard and ended up at BOERplay. ” This supplier has a vision for the layout of play areas, based on four game types – rauwers, douwers, builders and aurora – that fits seamlessly with our vision. We want a schoolyard that on the one hand gives children space and on the other hand gives them the opportunity to meet. And the latter is a socio-emotional aspect: on a square children learn to interact and play with each other. A second part of the vision is that we regularly give outdoor lessons and that the schoolyard and the layout had to match that. ”
Design vision: four game types and moving learning
Good play space gives children the opportunity to play in their own way and to do what suits their development. A well-equipped schoolyard contributes to better learning performance and fun school time for children. To this end, BOERplay uses the people-type approach with four game types: Energizers, Structure seekers, builders and Observers. These game modes are inspired by the vision of Bertus Mulder. This concerns the design of the schoolyard as a whole, by offering space for all these game types and thus meeting the needs of every type of child.
- Energizer: Children who need space to lose their energy and bounce around. Spatial translation: an open field where nothing is necessary and everything is possible; running, football, basketball, cycling or skating, depending on the surface.
- Structure seekers: Children who need structure and who are looking for an opportunity to play. Spatial translation: a structured space, specially arranged for an activity or game, such as a playground equipment or sandbox.
- Builders: Children who use loose material to build their own environment. Spatial translation: margin area, the edges with which other spaces are created (often green); messing around, picking, breaking down, hiding.
- Observers: Children who need shelter. First see if you participate or just rest. Spatial translation: indoor-outdoor space with vertical or horizontal boundaries where you feel shelter.
Exercise during and outside school has a positive influence on brain activity and cognitive skills, among other things. For example in the field of language and arithmetic. The schoolyard offers numerous possibilities to let the teaching material that is offered inside, also be experienced outside. Learning becomes fun by cleverly linking learning and exercise.
Playhouse and hangout
Leenhouwers then asked a boy and girl from each group what should be left of the old schoolyard. This revealed, among other things, that the playhouse and the football field should remain and that the three tumble racks had to be expanded with a smaller fourth for the very youngest. Then he asked what they would like to have new and a swing scored particularly high. After the students, Leenhouwers went to the teachers. They wanted a hangout for the older students. “In the old situation, they sat on tree benches around two trees, but you can’t look at each other.” BOERplay then translated the requirements into a design that was submitted to all parties. It led to a few adjustments, after which the design was finally final.
The outdoor lessons come back in all kinds of ways on the new schoolyard. For example, numbers and letters have been applied with street stickers and colors in different shapes also play an important role. There is also a ‘monkey rock’, a device consisting of benches of different heights that are attached to each other. ” It is used in drawing lessons, for example, to sit on, just like the ‘stands’ around the football field. ”
Half trunks
To ensure that the schoolyard remained unified after the redevelopment, certain parts of the old square were pimped, such as a large appliance with a suspension bridge for the older children. The old concrete edge was covered with half logs. The playhouse, to which the youngest so attached, has returned as a new device. The new schoolyard was opened at the beginning of the school year. Leenhouwers is now seeing the effect of this in various areas. “The football field used to be extremely busy. Sometimes with 40 to 45 children per break. After the redesign, that number will be half. The rest divides into everything that challenges around it. Another thing we see is that groups of children mix more than before and other groups form. And we see that there are fewer conflicts, because there is now so much supply. If an extension is busy, you simply switch to another extension. ”
Stage
Leenhouwers is proud of the new stage around the entrance of the school. Previously, this was a slightly raised stage around the entrance measuring 1.5 by 1.5 meters, which was unsuitable for events such as the reception of Sinterklaas. ” We missed an outdoor stage. There is now an elevated outdoor stage in the shape of a half moon with a width of six meters and a height of 50 centimeters. Leenhouwers sees that the new stage is also popular with the children. “The children of our school love to dance. That is why I bought a battery-powered sound box with an SD card with top 40 numbers on it. They can use them, provided they don’t turn the sound too loud of course. ”
Also new to the square is a King field, a family swing and a concrete ping pong table. And a traffic circle with an elevation, including a “petrol pump”, where children can practice with traffic on their bikes and in their carts.