Every school knows the headache of scheduling major works outside term time. The summer holiday is the obvious choice, especially for playground redevelopments, but with only a six-week window, August is our busiest time of year.
Thoughtful design, governor consultations and securing funding don’t happen overnight. The schools enjoying a fresh playground in September are rarely the ones that rushed in May or June. They’re the ones that started the conversation the autumn before.
We can move fast if your budget is signed off and your brief is clear, but we can’t manufacture diary space. Every school wants the same six-week window. To help you stay ahead of the rush, here’s a month-by-month roadmap for a seamless summer installation. If you’re reading this in the autumn, you’re right on schedule.
Let's start the conversation and build the brief. Tell us about your school: the space and its challenges, the age and ability of your children, how you want to challenge them, and how the outside space can support learning. Share your must-haves, timeframes and budget (don’t worry if funding isn’t in place yet). This is also the perfect time for an initial site visit and consultation, after which we will begin the first iteration of your design.
Your initial design is presented to you, bringing together everything we learned in the brief and site visit. We’ll walk you through the concept, then make a first round of iterations based on your reactions, so the design is ready to share more widely in the spring.
Share the design with your key stakeholders: SLT, governors, the PTA and, of course, the children! We’ll refine it together, gathering feedback until it feels right for your school.
Once the feedback is in, we share the revised design proposal. This is your last chance to make changes before you place your order and secure your summer install ahead of the rush.
Your build begins at our workshop, where our team of skilled craftspeople handcraft your play area, ready for installation day.
We work closely with your site team to get everything positioned, with regular touchpoints throughout the installation and sign-off once it’s in the ground.
Your play area comes with a 12-month warranty against workmanship defects and a 20-year warranty against timber failure, and we’ll check in again after a few weeks of real use. Children, over to you!
If you want a new playground next summer, the brief is the thing to do this autumn. Not sure where to begin? That's exactly what we're here for. Tell us about your school, and we'll take it from there.
Talk to Anna, our outdoor learning & play specialist, about your next school project - anna@home-front.co.uk
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