St Marys’s Anglican Girls’ School Pre-Primary Learning

St Mary’s Anglican Girls’ School is thrilled with the delivery of a wonderful outdoor learning and playspace for the children in their newly built pre-primary building of the Peter Arney Centre for Early Learning. The space gently cocoons the building, taking advantage of the challenges of the steeply sloped, narrow site to create a world of opportunity to explore, create, have fun and learn in.

The children love their space, proudly showing it to visitors and staff alike. The teaching staff have noted an improvement in levels of resiliency and self-management of disputes, with the latter becoming less frequent. Learning is now more explicitly observed while students play, supporting staff to encourage more play-based learning while meeting curriculum requirements.

In close consultation with the school community and building architect, the design response was developed by the innovative combination of a multi-disciplinary team utilising professional skills and experience including landscape architecture, horticulture, play consultancy, occupational therapy, community development and project management. Fundamental to the design team’s work is an understanding of the research relating to the benefits of children having free-play opportunities in natural environments and constructivist learning theory. With varied backgrounds and skills, each team member offers a different perspective and approach, all with a commitment to the common goal of achieving the best outcome for each child and the education community who will be engaging with the space.

Significantly, considering the challenging nature of the narrow, sloped site, the design provides high levels of accessibility for those with physical and non-physical disabilities. Feedback from the school has included praise for the inclusivity of the design, particularly in enabling one of their students, who has a significant vision impairment, to successfully negotiate the challenges within the environment, to master those challenges and to flourish and build self-efficacy. The playspace has retained mature eucalyptus tree, and complemented these with new planting and includes a range of bespoke, natural and manufactured elements. The synergistic perspectives of the team has ensured delivery of an aesthetically pleasing, functional, sustainable, educational and fun outdoor learning playspace.