St Mary’s Priory
ZRP were asked to re-order the school’s existing nursery and playground spaces with a view to replicating elements of a forest school, albeit in an urban setting.
The aim is to create a wild play area that provides the children with a natural play area, a much-needed contrast to the rest of the school environment which is mainly tarmacked. Budget will be maximised by using as much recycled or repurposed material as possible, such as a log wall and upturned tractor wheel, augmented with some carefully selected play equipment including a robinia fort structure, all of which will create a dynamic play environment.
We believe that bringing nature into play allows our children to develop, improving their physical dexterity and all round health and wellbeing.
Meanwhile, the school are improving their nursery facilities to increase their capacity for early years intake. ZRP obtained Planning Permission for a small extension to enlarge the entrance lobby and have carefully re-planned existing internal accommodation to provide an additional teaching room with interconnected WCs, Cloakroom, Reception and Storage. The proposal seeks to create a warm and more natural environment than the conventional school space, by using a calm palette of materials and softening the harsher edges of the space, employing calm and tasteful colours that make the experience of using these facilities more enjoyable for the children and allow learning to be undertaken in a clear, uncluttered and calm environment.
ZRP are also engaged to provide infrastructure improvements to the school such as for the replacement of Fire Alarm systems.
