Park Hall Primary is a school situated in Northern Ireland, and it is also the furthest we have worked away from where we are based, in South Yorkshire. With the school being so far away all of the preparation and planning work went through phone and Emails, instead of the usual site survey we would do. The co-operation went smoothly and we feel it gave us a chance to make us all feel really involved with the whole project. So this was what the area was like when we arrived on site.
First of all, we mark out the working area and prepare all of the tools and equipment we’ll need for the day. It started off to a windy, pouring wet day. That didn’t stop us from persevering with the task ahead though. We can be seen through any amount of fog or rain with our high-vis jackets.
A black, weed-proof membrane is fitted to the area that the fit trail follows, following it down 2 metres wide. This prevents any unwanted weeds growing through and making the ground bumpy and uneven underneath. All of the equipment on the floor is as pre-built as possible, for example the musical instruments and weather station panels. However, items in the trim trail all have to be built up on site and can be quite time consuming.
String lines are used to mark key areas in our measurements and are often replaced by a ping line to ensure we keep working down the exact centre of the area. In this moment, we cut holes in the membrane so we can dig down to create a foundation for the logs. Depending on the scale of the trail and access to the area we will use various methods including: manual post hole diggers, small machine post hole borers, and even a digger.
We had to be wary of the equipment we brought with travelling on the ferry, which was a fun experience in itself.
Usually we will put fencing or cones up straight away, but we only needed to tape it off when we was using the machinery and setting in the items here. Our high quality, radiata pine logs are concreted deep into the ground ensuring the structure has a supporting foundation that stays strong throughout the years, making your trim trail last.
The interactive panels also have this same structure, to keep the same theme and longevity in the items.
Come day 2 – everything was setting and sitting firmly (despite the heavy rain that we had to soldier through). Today was a bit brighter, thankfully. It was time to put the half log wooden border perimeter in. It really started to make the trim trail feel more to completion.
We hammer stakes into the ground to support the wooden border and keep it standing upright.
Lastly, we smoothed the area off by filling it in with bark to provide a safety surface, just in case the children can’t make it all the way across without falling! In this photo you can just see the all weather station panel which includes a variety of features including: Thermometer, Hygrometer, Barometer instrument dials and more.
This is the finished area. It is broken up in 2 sections, with the variety of educational and interactive panels sat at the end in a horse-shoe shape and the trim trail leading up to it. The sun just seemed to rise out of the clouds as we was clearing up, which made this picture sit easy on the eyes.
The musical instruments seen here are a great piece of equipment for the kids who like to make a noise and bring out their inner Beethoven. The children can work together in unison to get in touch with their musical creativity. If they have the more scientific edge, then they can use the sliders on the weather station panel to predict upcoming forecasts – you might have your own future meteorologist or weather forecaster amongst your students.
Finishing off, it has a dual planter feature in the centre that can be an activity in itself involving the kids.
This is how we left the school, with a trim trail area we’re proud to put our name to. Park Hall Primary provided great hospitality whilst we was working there and it was very much appreciated. We hope that we have a chance to provide more stunning areas like this in the future.
