SEND Playground - Treloar's School & College

Setting the Scene

The Treloar Trust provides education, care, therapy, medical support and independence training to young people with physical disabilities from all over the UK and overseas. Their aim is to prepare young people for adult life, giving them the confidence and skills to achieve their full potential.

Treloar’s is fortunate to have a dedicated outdoor space, however it needed a new lease of life which included proper access for young people in wheelchairs and areas of interest, socialisation and play.

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Customer Objectives

Treloar’s wanted a garden landscape that was a multi-functional outdoor learning environment for the young people in its care.

They wanted areas that could be used:
• As an outdoor classroom
• For pets
• To encourage social interaction

These areas needed to include sensory elements in planting, a variety of surfacing for those with visual impairment and most importantly a place to feel safe and relaxed.

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Our Solution

We created a journey through the garden to different destinations with curved pathways, various seating and activity areas.

We introduced large feature structures using a range of different materials such as corten steel, timber and tensile fabric which creates an upward looking interest to the garden.

A wide range of floor surfaces including turf, resin bound pathways, wet pour, hoggin and linear block paving, all in contrasting colours to aid those who are visually impaired. Activity zones including oversized Storytelling Chairs were created with one chair being suitable for students to reverse into in their wheelchairs.

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We introduced reflection into the garden with the use of mirror and accent lighting throughout, creating a lovely atmosphere as the sun sets.

We included sensory planting with height, movement, colour, smell and a space for hands on experience in potting plants and learning about how plants grow from seed.

A bespoke pets corner was designed in the shape of a tractor with real tractor wheels. We included wheelchair accessible hutches enabling students to help feed and pet the rabbits and clean the hutches.

We positioned the tractor so that with the use of over ground rabbit tunnels, the rabbits can also access an indoor rabbit hutch.

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