“For the last 18 months we have been reflecting on accessibility for all children to our site. The benefits of outdoor learning are clear, but we realised that our space wasn’t necessarily accessible for every child in a way that catered to their specific needs. We needed to lay an infrastructure that catered for all and set out to find solutions that would work within our context and desire to be sustainable and as low impact as possible. For that to be possible, any future developments we undertake will now include the additional steps of reflecting on the design choices we make to ensure they lend themselves to all children regardless of need.
In the past we have trialled different materials such as Geotextile with type 2 quartz on top, pallet walkways, Easylock path systems, and finally decided that the best solution to meet all of our needs would be the use of EcoGrid. EcoGrid is made from recycled plastics and can be laid directly onto the ground with dressing material laid over the top. Using Google Earth we made an accessibility plan for the site and calculated that we needed 700 running metres of pathways. Our Psychological Service Home Visiting Teacher forwarded on information about grants from the Raddery Trust, from which we were successful in receiving funding of £5000. This enabled us to buy 250 metres of EcoGrid as well as the material needed to dress the pathways. Last Saturday we organised a work party through our nursery community which enabled us to lay all of the EcoGrid. We also managed to spread material on top of about 180 metres.
We are overwhelmed not only with what our community was able to accomplish on Saturday, but also with the end result. The bottom portion of our site has been transformed and has made us more energised to keep seeking funding so that we can proudly say that our site is accessible to all regardless of any need they may have.”
Cameron Sprague – Team Leader – Stramash Social Enterprise
Highland Council Psychological Service 