Ridgeway Farm CE Academy is a new school in Swindon near the Shaw Ridge retail park. It has only been open since 2016 and is rapidly growing. It is situated in the centre of a new estate and has a very generous outside space.
Ridgeway wanted to utilise their large field and create more opportunities for the children to use the space during the wetter winter months. The children were currently running their Golden Mile around their tarmac playground, which was becoming crowded when also teaching sports lessons.
In addition to the Golden Mile, they also wanted a breakout space for outdoor learning and forest school, which would provide shade and shelter from the weather.
We worked with Robyn and Carl to create a Just Like Grass Golden Mile track which linked with their tarmac playground. We designed the track to be 200m long, enabling the children to run 8 laps to complete their Golden Mile. We included a section with a deeper stone base which granted their gangway lawnmower access to the field without damaging the track.
For the learning space, we felt our Octagonal Outdoor Classroom would work perfectly on Ridgeway’s field, creating an impressive focal point. We positioned the Outdoor Classroom adjacent to the Golden Mile track and surfaced underneath with Just Like Grass. This has enabled the children to access the classroom in Winter without walking over the field. This also means that the Outdoor Classroom can be used as a resting point when completing the Golden Mile. The Outdoor Classroom has a Chalkboard to assist teaching and can comfortably seat over 40 children. Ridgeway were lucky enough to make use of the 10% Discount on Outdoor Classrooms and Shelters we were running at the time.
"We are so pleased that our all weather-running track has been completed. This has enabled us to once again run our Golden Mile as a whole family and even when the grass has been damp, provided just that extra space that we all need."
Laura Gibbard, Head of School