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Set Sail on The Drake Play Boat at Bede’s Prep April 2023

Bede’s Prep asked Rhino Play to design a multi-surface play area with eye-catching play boat to add to the amazing school grounds. The brief was to create an area to attract new children to the school and to offer an amazing play space that the children would love. The Drake Play Boat is a play unit that could be used during breaktime, but also as a curriculum fulfilling educational piece and to encourage more social interaction and physical challenge.  The space available was located at the front of the school and could be seen by the general public so the area was a real selling point for the school.

How Did Rhino Play Help Bede’s Prep?

After an initial site inspection, we got to work designing and creating a fun, educational and multi-surface play area. With input from the school, we opted for the fantastic Drake Play Boat, a product that met all of the school briefs, specifications and criteria. We submitted some colourful visual designs along with the quotation and the school loved the concept. Between Rhino Play and the school we tinkered with the layout and opted for a combination of artificial grass and wetpour rubber to brighten the existing tarmac space.

The designed unit would sit within a blue wetpour rubber surface to indicate the sea, the school then added a perimeter roadway, great for bikes and trikes. We added splashes of deep red rubber to match the school colour and green artificial grass to finish off the entire area into an island theme. The Drake Play Boat is over 8m long and sits beautiful in it’s new coastal setting, with climbing nets, ramps, clatterbridge and slide there is plenty for children to enjoy for hours!

The Play Boat combines excellent play elements with social interaction, role-playing and physical challenge. Children will have hours of fun and the potential for great learning and educational development. It adds physical challenge with social interaction and teamwork play.

The unit includes:

  • Multi-level decks.
  • Climbing Ramp with Resin hand and foot grips.
  • Rope Ladder
  • Angled Net.
  • Angled Clatterbridge.
  • Slide.
  • Shade Sail for sun protection.
  • Colour paint highlights and Ship theming.
Bespoke multi-surface play area

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What Are The Benefits Of Installing a Play Boat and Surfacing?

The benefits of a play boat and surfacing can be as simple as giving the children something new, exciting and engaging to use during breaktimes but it can also transform a tired area into a wow factor and selling point for a school. It offers sensory and tactile experiences from the beautiful natural look of the timber to the bright and textured surfacing. It is a place to play, learn and develop offering physical challenge, role-play experiences and the chance to interact with other children in a fun and safe way.  Combining play and educational uses the boat and surface offer the ability to incorporate play and fun into P.E. lessons. Children can observe, learn and improve the way they use the play structure, challenging themselves in different ways as their confidence grows.

These units are a great way to improve your play area and to develop and improve a child’s physical and emotional wellbeing. They also help promote social interaction and teamwork.

Contact Rhino Play to discuss bespoke equipment, ask us to design something that is really personal to your location, that fits in with the surroundings and ticks all your specifications. Our Rhino Play playground equipment helps encourage children to develop the following skills:

Thank you to Bede’s Prep for the opportunity to work on this great project!

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