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CONNECTING WITH THE NATURAL WORLD
ENVIRONMENTAL PLAYGROUNDS
While they may not be aware of it, the spaces and environments in which children play can be a fantastic way to help the local environment, providing habitats for wildlife. It’s an opportunity to create something that is great for the kids and all the fabulous creatures they share their world with – and it’s an excellent learning environment. Find out more by contacting Learning Through Play.
Creating a safe home for local wildlife
A RANGE OF HABITATS
Based in Gravesend, our team has designed and installed environmental gardens for clients right across the South East, helping schools and nurseries to enrich the environments of the children in their care as well as providing homes for all manner of fascinating wildlife that the children can enjoy learning about.
We can provide you with bee hotels, worm gardens, hedgehog homes, insect hotels, bat and bird boxes, hibernacula (a place where animals hibernate), wildlife gardens, dipping ponds, growing beds… there’s a huge range of options! having some of these features in your school can help children to learn about the wider natural world and educate them about important issues.
Exploring and learning in safety
PONDS AND GARDENS
Ponds and water gardens are something that children seem to be drawn to – after all, there are few things as fun to a small child as the risk of getting wet or dirty! But our ponds and gardens are designed and installed to allow children to get up close to nature in a safe and controlled way, keeping the mess to a minimum.
We construct ponds and gardens that are carefully designed to provide appropriate areas for wildlife to thrive, as well as incorporating dipping platforms and decked areas that allow safe access for children to enjoy these spaces and learn about their environment. It’s an exciting and practical way to help children become curious about the natural world.
Making the most of a natural resource
RAINWATER MANAGEMENT
As a result of global warming, it has become more frequent in recent years to experience heavier and more intense periods of rainfall that often result in flash flooding. As well as causing local flooding it can also cause overloading of sewage works resulting in the release of untreated sewage and the flooding of areas further downstream in rivers.
Rain gardens in schools help water to collect and infiltrate naturally into the ground, and have the added benefit of creating inviting green spaces. For smaller areas, we have developed special raised storage planters which intercept water from roofs and down pipes, store it short term, then release it slowly back into the mains drainage system after the rain has subsided. Playground canopies which provide children with shelter can also be used to help collect and re-direct rainwater into the rain gardens or planters.
You may qualify for help with the cost
FUNDING
For many of our clients, any new addition to their site has to be carefully assessed in order to balance the cost against the benefit, and this is something that we understand. We want to make our services as accessible as possible, and that means keeping our costs as low as possible, but even that isn’t always enough.
For our wonderful rain gardens, however, help may be available! It is often the case that funding can be accessed through water companies, as they have an interest in managing the effects of excessive rainfall. Since rain gardens can be an asset for this purpose, and have the added benefit of improving the landscape generally, many water companies are keen to support such projects. Talk to us to find out more.
ENRICHING CHILDREN’S ENVIRONMENTS
We’re very proud of all our work, here at Learning Through Play, but our environmental playgrounds are some of our favourite projects! Contact our Gravesend office today to learn more about the benefits. We’ve created wonderful environments throughout the South East.