SEN Playgrounds

Ashmount School We co-designed an outdoor classroom for a special needs school by spending time in the school, observing, talking, and participating in activities in order to build good relationships with staff and students. Many of the students did not have verbal communication skills, therefore observation and participation in existing activities was particularly relevant. A key observation from this approach was how creative the staff were in the way they ‘dressed up’ and transformed their classrooms from an ocean with a desert island to a Viking ship to a concert hall. This gave us the initial idea to create a set of larger scale pieces that could act as ‘coat hangers’ and allow the outdoor area to be ‘dressed up’ as something different every time it was used. Birkett House School Birkett House School commissioned us to design and build a sensory playground that would allow its pupils with complex needs to access an underused outside area. The process of designing the playground was a unique one and the final design is something that celebrates natural light, shape, and texture. We spent time with staff and students, sketching, observing, and playing with materials so we could tailor-make the best space for them. The space was designed for complex needs and we created 7 separate spaces, each of which isolated an experience so that students could focus on 1 thing rather than being bombarded by sensations.