Funding swings Kinglassie Primary School’s new playground into action
In June 2023, Kinglassie Parent Council was awarded just over £13,000 from Ventient Westfield (Kinglassie) Community Windfarm Fund, to contribute to installing new playground equipment.
The aim of having new equipment was to improve the facilities and provide the pupils with a space they could be proud to call their own.
The Ventient Westfield (Kinglassie) Community Wind Farm Fund supports projects which benefit those living within the Kinglassie Community Council area.
Kinglassie Primary School is supported by a dedicated group of parents within the Parent Council, which is a voluntary, not for profit group, established in 2001. The Parent Council supports the school and nursery by arranging or supporting extra-curricular activities, undertaking fundraising activities to provide discretionary benefits to the pupils and the school (such as the purchase of equipment and additional materials, or subsidising travel costs for school trips). The school and nursery roll of around 200 children and their families benefit from the Parent Councils’ work.
The original playground area was dilapidated and unappealing, with faded hopscotch and other playground markings, broken goal posts, a scruffy garden/front entrance area and limited options for seating and equipment. Parents, residents and pupils were frequently commenting on the poor quality and unwelcoming aesthetic appearance of the playground area, and in 2022 the Parent Council decided to take action.
Following a series of consultations with school staff, Fife Council, teachers, the local community and of course pupils, plans were developed by the Parent Council in association with senior School staff and Fife Council to develop the space and give it a whole new lease of life.
The Parent Council’s plan was to rejuvenate the area and ultimately improve the play space by providing significant health, safety and wellbeing benefits to the school and nursery's current and future intakes of children and their families. This would help ensure that the school was a welcoming place to visit and attend, improving aspirations and educational opportunities while also improving the general aesthetics of a major site within the community.
The Parent Council wanted to purchase a range of durable playground play equipment and install associated safety surfacing to augment these volunteer-led improvements, thereby making the playground a far more attractive, fun and beneficial resource, beyond what the school would be expected to provide as a statutory responsibility.
The key benefits for the new playground and equipment included:
- Improved physical and mental health and wellbeing from enhanced outdoor play and safer facilities.
- Increased educational attainment through more and diversified outdoor activities during the school day and increased aspiration from an improved learning environment.
- Improved social and core skills development and imagination from a more stimulating play environment.
It is hoped that families will likely benefit from happier and more stimulated children.
As well as a direct benefit for the school, the wider community is benefiting from a more attractive aesthetic appearance of the school, which will hopefully contribute towards attracting and retaining young families in the area.
The playground has proved a huge success with the pupils of the primary school and nursery.
The Parent Council wanted to ensure a lasting impact and transformative change within their school, and they have certainly achieved their goal.
Most importantly however, the pupils have a sense of pride in their space which will also go on to support new generations to come.
Jeni Roy, who is the Head Teacher at Kinglassie Primary School said:
We are incredibly grateful to both the Parent Council and the Kinglassie Community Fund for providing our new playground equipment. The young people are really enjoying playing on it and it has brightened our playground.
Laura Stenhouse, Representative for Kinglassie Parent Council said:
For the past year, the PTA of Kinglassie Primary School has been working hard to source funding to improve the playground. This has included painting the walls, painting games on the ground, new benches, planters, and football goals. The icing on the cake has been the addition of a climbing maze and summersault bars funded by a generous grant from Ventient Energy’s Westfield Wind Farm. What a difference and the kids love it.