Categories: Property

Stonefields School

&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" alignright size-full wp-image-931" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;schoolnewsnz&period;fastrackdev&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;07&sol;SND05-wk1-Property&lowbar;case&lowbar;study&lowbar;SStonefields&lowbar;3&lowbar;300x225&period;jpg" alt&equals;"SND05-wk1-Property case study SStonefields 3 300x225" style&equals;"margin&colon; 5px&semi; float&colon; right&semi;" width&equals;"300" height&equals;"225" &sol;>Stonefields School&comma; in the Stonefields suburb of east Auckland&comma; opened in February 2011 with 48 children&period; Currently there are 305 learners in years 1 to 8 on the roll&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p> <&excl;--more--> <&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>On March 10 this year&comma; following an intensive&comma; two-year fundraising programme&comma; the school opened its new senior playground&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Board of trustees foundation member&comma; Diane Harrison&comma; says when the school was being planned by the Ministry of Education there was no funding allocation for playgrounds&comma; as it was a high-decile school&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;The architect&&num;8217&semi;s plans included space for two playgrounds and we started by fundraising for the first playground for the juniors&comma; which cost &dollar;50&comma;000 plus &dollar;25&comma;000 for shade&period; As the school mushroomed&comma; the junior playground became too small for the senior kids&comma; so we embarked on the fundraising for the senior playground&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We were fundraising for two years&period; Everything we&&num;8217&semi;ve been doing – raffles&comma; school fairs&comma; galas&comma; were all for the playground and we raised &dollar;75&comma;000&period; Fundraising for both playgrounds was hard for us as the school opened with only 48 children so we didn&&num;8217&semi;t have a big pool of resources to draw from&period; Raising this money has taken a lot of hard work and determination and hundreds of volunteer hours&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>A further &dollar;25&comma;000 came from three separate community grants&comma; two of &dollar;10&comma;000 and one of &dollar;5&comma;000&comma; and the school board contributed &dollar;25&comma;000 from its reserves&comma; Mrs Harrison says&period; The total cost of the playground was &dollar;126&comma;000 plus GST&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Parks Supplies won the contract for supplying and installing the playground&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We presented a proposal for the playground that was an end-to-end solution with the design work&comma; play equipment&comma; rubber matting and site install services and they accepted the proposal&comma;&&num;8221&semi; managing director Adam Stride says&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" alignleft size-full wp-image-932" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;schoolnewsnz&period;fastrackdev&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;07&sol;SN25-Property-Case&lowbar;Study-Stonefields&lowbar;1&lowbar;200x300&period;jpg" alt&equals;"SN25-Property-Case Study-Stonefields 1 200x300" style&equals;"margin&colon; 5px&semi; float&colon; left&semi;" width&equals;"200" height&equals;"300" &sol;>Ideas for the playground also involved input from the children&comma; though there wasn&&num;8217&semi;t always agreement&comma; Mrs Harrison says&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Sometimes what the adults want and what the kids want is quite different&period; The Ministry of Education has to agree too&period; For example&comma; the kids wanted a flying fox&comma; but it didn&&num;8217&semi;t fit in the space allocated&comma; plus it was only one item and only one child can use it at a time&comma; which wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t give us maximum benefit from the money we were spending&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>She says the board selected Park Supplies&comma; not just for their design&comma; but also because it is a local company and they wanted to support the local economy&period; Once the proposal was accepted&comma; manufacture of the playground equipment commenced in December 2013 at Park Supplies&&num;8217&semi; Penrose factory&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;This is an activity-packed design&comma; and it&&num;8217&semi;s the first of this configuration that we&&num;8217&semi;ve installed&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Mr Stride says&period; &&num;8220&semi;A lot of R&amp&semi;D has gone into it&period; The idea behind it is there&&num;8217&semi;s minimal platforms and decks&period; They waste valuable play space&comma; and in relation to the cost&comma; there&&num;8217&semi;s not a lot of value to the kids&period; Children can make their way through our full activity range&comma; transitioning from activity to activity without touching the ground&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;The playground design at Stonefields is as big as it gets&period; We call it the &&num;8216&semi;Big Kahuna&&num;8217&semi; and the whole idea is to give maximum play value&period; It provides for upper and lower body activity&comma; motor skills&comma; balance and a huge&comma; dynamic range of agility movement for all parts of the body&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While the equipment was being manufactured the site was prepared for the installation of the matting&comma; which was manufactured and supplied by Auckland-based company Matta Products Ltd&period;<br &sol;>&&num;8220&semi;We chose to have rubber matting for the surface as it&&num;8217&semi;s far superior to bark&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Mrs Harrison says&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Play Matta&&num;8217&semi;s northern regional sales manager Justin Handley says when companies manufacturing playground equipment require synthetic surfaces on which to install it&comma; they usually come to them&period;<br &sol;>&&num;8220&semi;That&&num;8217&semi;s because we do what we say&comma; we&&num;8217&semi;re fully compliant with regulations&comma; our surfacing outlasts the alternatives and we&&num;8217&semi;re very responsive to any issues that arise&period; We have a long-term relationship with all the playground equipment manufacturers&comma; including Park Supplies&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Play Matta was responsible for excavating the playground site to a firm sub-base&comma; importing and compacting a mix of Gap40 and Gap 7 base material in preparation for the installation of the matting&period;&comma; Mr Handley says&period; The base material provides a long-term level surface and improves drainage in the area&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;When we were doing the excavation we worked very closely with the school and with Park Supplies to ensure a smooth process&period; This included establishing access points&comma; fencing the site and adhering to health and safety regulations at all times&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Stride says that due to Stonefields School being built on land that was previously a quarry it was quite a challenge to excavate the footing holes for the playground&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;Nevertheless&comma; the Park Supplies installation team battled through without any delays or extra costs to the school&comma;&&num;8221&semi; he says&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Play Matta Original tiles used for the playground surface are made from recycled PVC &lpar;electrical cable&comma; gumboots&rpar;&comma; while the shock pads under the tiles&comma; ensuring the required Critical Fall Height&comma; are made from recycled truck tyres&period; Both tiles and pads were made in Matta&&num;8217&semi;s Otaki manufacturing plant&period; The surface is 97 per cent recycled material and is an Environmental Choice New Zealand accredited product&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><img class&equals;" alignright size-full wp-image-933" src&equals;"http&colon;&sol;&sol;schoolnewsnz&period;fastrackdev&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;07&sol;SN25-Property-Case&lowbar;study&lowbar;Stonefields&lowbar;200x300&period;jpg" alt&equals;"SN25-Property-Case study Stonefields 200x300" style&equals;"margin&colon; 5px&semi; float&colon; right&semi;" width&equals;"200" height&equals;"300" &sol;>Mr Handley says the main change between the other Stonefields playground and the new one is that Matta now welds the tile surface together rather than glueing it&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;We run a pair of twisted wires between the tiles&comma; apply a current through the wires and literally melt them together&period; We developed this unique technique and we&&num;8217&semi;ve been using it in the United States for eight years now&comma; one of the reasons thisd was developed was to compensate for the extremes in temperature over there&comma; which causes excessive expansion and contraction in the tiles&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;That&&num;8217&semi;s not such an issue in New Zealand&comma; but with this technique the long-term results are better for our customers&period; Over time tiles shrink imperceptibly and the welding technique holds the playground together with a stronger bond&period; Additionally&comma; we pin the perimeter of the top surface so the whole installation is secured in place&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;The surface is almost maintenance-free – as with everything a good clean every year keeps it looking good – and there is a six-year full warranty on both the product and the installation&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Board member Diane Harrison says one of the notable features of the surface area is the incorporation of hexagonal shapes&comma; which is a theme that&&num;8217&semi;s reflected throughout the school&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;That was on the top of the list when we were working out the design with Park Supplies&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Another significant aspect of the playground design is the affirmations climbing walls on which the school&&num;8217&semi;s seven learner qualities are presented&period; These are&comma; Be determined&comma; Think&comma; Question&comma; Wonder&comma; Reflect&comma; Be Self Aware and Connect&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;These qualities are used throughout the school to help the children learn and get out of the &&num;8216&semi;I&&num;8217&semi;m stuck&&num;8217&semi; situations&comma;&&num;8221&semi; Mrs Harrison says&period; &&num;8220&semi;The bright green and silver colour scheme also fits in with the school&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Adam Stride of Park Supplies says what&&num;8217&semi;s most notable to him about the Stonefields School senior playground is that it&&num;8217&semi;s100 per cent New Zealand made&comma; as Park Supplies does not import any playground equipment&comma; providing cost-effective products&comma; made locally using nearly all New Zealand-made materials and labour&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mrs Harrison says the playground is proving a huge success with the children&comma; and the teaching staff&comma; school board and community are thrilled with the results of all the hard work&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&&num;8220&semi;As we are in a new sub-division the community has really grown and pulled together to make this second playground a reality and it&&num;8217&semi;s a huge asset for our local area&comma;&&num;8221&semi; she says&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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