President

Ballymun schools playground improvement programme
An initiative to address the issue of play in schools
has been undertaken by Ballymun Regeneration
Ltd (BRL). Through the local education
committee eight schools in Ballymun (two secondary
level and six primary level) were invited by the BRL Play
Development Officer to participate in a school
playground improvement programme. The purpose of the
programme is to address the limitations (mainly due to
fears of injury and litigation) on play provision currently
available in schools and to identify and implement
actions that will bring about the improvement and/or
increase of play opportunities within schools. Through
creative thinking and dedication to the importance of
play a wide variety of play opportunities in schools can be
developed and will provide positive play experiences
before and after school hours and during lunch break.
This will assist in:
Providing positive play experiences within the school
environment, that will in turn encourage positive usage
of play facilities outside of school.
Increasing school attendance.
Improving attainment.
Reducing accidents in the school playground.
Reducing incidents of bullying.
Increasing physical and social activity during school
hours.
Enhancing children’s social, physical and psychological
development.
Programme process
In order to implement the programme, Marc Armitage,
Independent Play Consultant, was engaged by BRL Play
Development section. The programme will be delivered
and implemented through a process that has been
developed by the consultant. All of the eight schools have
completed the first three phases of the programme that
consisted of an initial programme introduction,
playground audits and audit presentations for each
school. The remainder of the programme will involve
each school setting up a working group who will take
part in five training/mentoring workshops with the
consultant. The workshops will address various issues, i.e.
agreement of timetable and completion date for
development actions, identifying local resources, such as
environmental, art and building services, and identifying
funding sources. The purpose of the workshops is to
produce a final redevelopment action plan for the school
playgrounds. Each action plan will be unique to each
school, as spaces, resources etc. will vary from one school
to another.
Duration of programme
Finalising a schedule for the programme is an ongoing
process and will depend on the school schedule for the
year and the number of schools that will take part in the
project. The Ballymun programme has been scheduled
over four school terms.
Programme cost
One of the main principals of the programme is to keep
costs to a minimum as the concept of the programme is
to provide play opportunities as opposed to activities and
elaborately expensive play equipment. Also local resources
should be used whenever possible. To date the main costs
involved in order to implement programme in Ballymun
are the consultant fees. The final development action
plans will provide the information required for proposals
to the relevant funding agencies.
BRL would like to take this opportunity to thank all the
eight schools in Ballymun for their interest in addressing
the issue of play in schools and their commitment to
participate in the programme.
Ballymun Regeneration Ltd (BRL) Civic Centre, Main Street, Ballymun, Dublin 9
Tel: 01 222 5660 Fax: 01 842 1443 Web: www.brl.ie Email: brl.comms@dublincity.ie
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