Measuring the Impact of Investment in your Playground
17 January 2017
Making the decision to update or improve your playground is relatively easy but raising the finance for this kind of project can be challenging. Whether you’re making a capital expenditure purchase from your school budget, raising funds via your hard-working PTA or applying for a grant, enhancing your outdoor space can involve a significant investment. It goes without saying that you want to ensure you get real value for money from your new equipment and we take that very seriously.
Did you know that Playforce is the only play company that actively measures the impact of schools’ investment in playgrounds and outdoor spaces? We do this to ensure the projects that we work on and the equipment and solutions we design are making a genuine and tangible difference to children, schools and settings. We collect data from our customers regularly, analyse the findings, then share the findings with them so they can demonstrate the value of their investment to staff, parents, governors and the wider school community.
The impact evidence we’ve collected so far is extremely positive. The results of our most recent survey show some fantastic evidence of improvements in all areas of school life, from behaviour and physical literacy levels through to levels of parental engagement.
Nearly half of Playforce customers (48%) reported a significant increase in physical activity levels following improvements to their outside space and nearly four in ten (38.1%) reported major improvements in physical literacy and competence. Behaviour (43.4%) and positive attitudes to learning (36.3%) were significantly better as a result too, schools said, as were happiness (54.1%) and well-being (42.8%). The benefits of playground investment go beyond the bell too, it seems. 46.1% of respondents said children use their school’s outdoor space before and after school.
We’re proud to be helping schools support children to be more healthy and active. It’s clear to us that investing in well-designed, high-quality equipment and facilities for outdoor learning and play delivers far-reaching value for every child.
If you’re inspired by our impact evidence findings and want to discuss how to go about improving your school’s outdoor space, our expert consultants can help. Just book a free consultation here or call 01225 792660.
And of course if you’re a Playforce customer and you’d like to take part in our impact evidence research project you can do so by visiting www.surveymonkey.com/s/impactevidence2 .
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