Welcome to our new Playground
Outdoor learning and outdoor play are an integral part of children’s education. Primary aged children have the right to time and space to play and explore. Play is a really important part of their development.
The new Jordanhill Primary Playground has been designed and equipment selected by our group of Playground Ambassadors comprising of two pupils from each year group from P1-P7 and we are very proud to say it is designed by our children for our children!
We now have a fabulous playground design which is also manufactured with sustainable products, courtesy of the company we have selected, Kompan. Even more excitingly, our installation is booked for summer 2024. The project will cost £250,000 inclusive of all installation costs and resurfacing and the equipment will carry a guarantee of 30 years meaning not only current but many future generations of Jordanhill pupils will benefit from this fantastic project.
Our children would love a new playground and we need your help to make our new playground a reality!
We will be raising the £250,000 several different ways, for example through grants, our incredible PTA, corporate support, events, and of course, with the help of our community of past and present Jordanhill families.
You can donate through our links on this page or why not hold a fundraiser of your own? At the bottom of this page, you will find an A-Z of fundraising ideas you can do on your own or with your family. Don’t forget to share what you are doing with us so we can cheer you on! You can also share your progress and your fundraising on your social media by setting up your own page here.
We are so grateful for your support – we couldn’t do it without you.
Thank you.
We held a Primary wide competition to design a logo for our new Playground Project and were inundated with incredible entries!
We are delighted to share with you the final logo that our playground ambassadors selected as their favourite designs! We have worked with the finalists Kaela (P5) and Spencer (P7) to combine their fantastic efforts and create the final logo! This logo will feature on all our publicity, marketing and promotional material throughout our fundraising campaign.
Congratulations Kaela and Spencer!
Our Playground ambassador team have been hard at work choosing the final designs for the new playground, making promotional videos and introducing the Playground Project to all of our primary pupils at recent assemblies!! It’s been extremely busy for them and a lot of hard work but the team have worked really collaboratively together to make sure that we have the best possible design for our new playground that our kids of all ages will love!
Our incredible PTA have started the fundraising for the Playground Project in style by donating a massive £10,000!!!
They organised and hosted the first Quiz Night in 4 years in the school at the end of February which was a huge success and thoroughly enjoyed by all! The PTA have combined the monies raised at that event with the money they have taken in from their weekly Saturday morning refectory service and have donated £10,000. We would like to say a massive thank you to Gail and all the PTA team, we are very grateful for everything you do for the school!
On your marks, get ready, go!! We will shortly be announcing the dates of our first school organised event in aid of the Playground Project which will be a school wide Fun Run!! Keep your eyes peeled for dates, times and route maps!! You will be able to pick up a sponsorship form from school, download and print one from here or set up your own fundraising page using the link here.
Why are we fundraising for a Primary playground?
Outdoor learning and outdoor play is an integral part of Scottish education. Primary aged children have the right to time and space to explore, and play is an important part of their development. We have a responsibility to encourage pupils to play in our outdoor spaces. However, the playground in Jordanhill is currently uninspiring and offers limited play facilities.
We recognise the need to invest in a new Primary playground to improve the facilities for both the current and future generations of Primary children. This has strong endorsement from pupils, parents and staff who have witnessed improvements made to local authority school playgrounds. This has prompted pupils, parents, and staff to ask that investment be made in our playground.
Why will spending money on a new playground help my child learn?
According to a study at Harvard Medical School, regular exercise changes the brain to improve memory and thinking skills. One of the many benefits of outdoor play equipment is that it encourages children to take regular exercise, whether that’s a sporting activity, roleplay or challenging themselves on balance and climbing apparatus. Daily participation in these activities, therefore, can have a direct effect on their ability to learn and their progress. In addition, outdoor play helps children develop a range of essential learning skills, such as resilience, collaboration, and concentration, all of which can be transferred to the classroom.
Why are we raising money for a playground and not a new building?
We have aspirations to redevelop the Jordanhill School estate. We commissioned a survey in 2022 which helped us to understand the maintenance needs of the estate. This illustrated the substantial costs involved in maintaining our estate over the next ten years and our need to develop a plan for refurbishing and/or rebuilding. We used this survey to ask Scottish Government if we can access government support to help us re-develop our estate. It is our hope that we can access capital funding from government to help us with refurbishment and/or rebuilding where the costs will be substantially higher than the cost of a new playground.
Why are we fundraising for this, why don’t the government pay for it?
Government funding, if we can access it, will be used for essential projects. That is, for refurbishment, improvement or rebuilding of the existing estate to meet the needs of the school. As a playground such as the one we are proposing is not a building project, it is highly unlikely to attract government funding and could distract from our cause to apply for funding to improve our estate.
What other ways will my child benefit from having new playground equipment?
Physical development – the physical benefits of using outdoor playground equipment extend far beyond the short few years when children are in the school playground. Multiple studies have shown that individuals who engage in active physical play from a young age are likely to maintain that level of activity as they grow up. This leads to improved fitness and a level of activity that carries on well into secondary school and then adult life.
Mental Health – Studies show that regular physical activity can have an extremely positive impact on a range of mental health problems, particularly anxiety and depression. Installing a range of playground equipment that motivates pupils to join in will help to increase their endorphin levels and reduce stress.
Resilience – Failure is an integral part of success, ask anyone who has ever learnt to ride a bike! The problem is that some people never learn to ride because after falling off, they give up. To succeed, they need to resilience to get back on and the ability to learn from their mistakes. A playground environment with a wide variety of equipment is an ideal location to develop resilience and perseverance. When a wide variety of activities are on off children will realise that no one is good at everything from the first time they try it and learn the sense of achievement from succeeding at something they found especially challenging.
Can the new playground help with improving behaviour?
Yes! One of the biggest causes of poor behaviour is boredom and children in an empty playground can quickly run out of things to do or feel isolated from their peers. This is where more challenging behaviour can begin and escalate to something more serious. In addition, children who are bored during breaks often take their frustrations back into the classroom where they can cause disruption. Keeping children engaged and active on a range of play equipment at break times and lunch times can improve overall behaviour, reduce instances of bullying behaviour, and improve inclusion
Why are we paying for a playground instead of using the money to hire more teachers?
The money raised through fundraising is transferred to our Educational Amenities Trust. The aim of the trust is to support the school by offering educational enrichment. Funding, however, cannot be used to fund teacher posts or any other resources that should be provided by the state. Teacher salaries are paid from the school’s recurrent grant as per the government’s commitment to the school.
What are Striving Higher donations used for?
The school’s Educational Amenities Trust gives out grants to the school of between £30-£40K per annum. This sum is equivalent to the money raised through Striving Higher. These grants pay for educational enrichment activities such as lunchtime and afterschool clubs, subsidies for excursions, purchase of sports equipment, art resources, and musical instruments. Recent editions of the Jordanhill Journal showcase activities that have been paid for through Striving Higher.
What about sustainability? How eco friendly are the products?
Playgrounds made from KOMPAN’s specially developed green materials. They use recycled waste sources within their materials to produce play products with a low carbon footprint. Please see below the link to their sustainability section on their website for more information.
Sustainable Playground from KOMPAN | Sustainability |
How long will the new playground equipment last for?
The equipment is guaranteed to last for a minimum of 30 years and will serve both current pupils and many future generations of pupils.
The Playground Project
Thank you for visiting our fundraising page, we’re so happy you have been inspired to fundraise for us! Here you can find some ideas of things to help you choose how you want to fundraise. Once you know how you would like to raise money please let us know what you are doing, we would love to support you to make your fundraising a huge success!
A
- Auction
- Afternoon tea
- Abseil
B
- Bake off – challenge friends to The Great Jordanhill Bake Off!
- BBQ
- Bingo night
- Boxing day dip
C
- Comedy night
D
- Darts tournament
- Dinner party
- Disco
E
- Easter egg hunt
F
- Facebook fundraising – set up a birthday fundraiser and ask friends to donate as your gift!
G
- Garden party
- Golf day
- Great Scottish Run
H
- Half marathon
- Halloween party
- Hike ‘N’ Bike challenge race
J
- Jazz night
- Jumble sale
K
- Karaoke night
- Kick a bad habit
- Keep active challenges
- The Kiltwalk – thinking of walking this year? Do it for The Playground Project
L
- Ladies lunch
- Lands end to John Ogroats challenge (virtual race)
- Loose change collections
M
- Marathon run
- Murder mystery night
- Movember
- Workplace Matched Funding – raising money? Get your workplace to match fund what you raise!
N
- Neighbourhood street party
O
- Obstacle course race (such as Tough Mudder)
P
- Payroll donations
- Pub Quiz
Q
- Question of sport quiz night
R
- Race night
- Rugby match
- Raffles
S
- Skydive
- Sponsored Swim
- Sports sweepstakes
- Silent disco
T
- Talent show
- Tug o War
- Three Peaks Challenge
W
- World record attempt
- Wine and cheese night
- Wine tasting
X
- Xbox tournament
Y
- Yes Day – parents…are you brave enough to take on the toughest challenge out there?!
- Yogathon
Z
- Zumbathon
We need to raise £250,000 to make our Playground a reality! There are lots of different ways you can support us
- Corporate support – would your business or employer like to support the Playground project? We have lots of different types of opportunities for businesses to support our fundraising from matched funding through to having a piece of equipment named in their honour we would be delighted to chat through the various opportunities with you. Please contact our Director of Development Jill Robinson jo_robinsonj@jordanhill.glasgow.sch.uk for further information!
- Support school fundraising events! The pupils are really excited to have fun showcasing all their ideas to raise money, so from bake sales to coin trails, please support them where you can!
- Do a fundraising event of your own and create an online giving page that links directly to the Playground Project by clicking this link.
- Are you planning on doing a charity event this year? Whether it’s a half marathon, a Kiltwalk, a cycle or a sky dive please consider choosing the Playground Project as your charity of choice!
- Share the Playground Project fundraising platform on your social media and help us raise awareness within our community!
We deeply appreciate your support, thank you, we couldn’t do this without you!