KIDS at Monkton Primary and Early Years Centre have been enjoying a brand new interactive playground at the school.

After a long four year process, the playground is now complete and made to be inclusive for all primary pupils as well as youths from the Early Years Centre,

Thanks to the wonderful work from Monkton Parent Council, they provided equipment to the school built for longevity. They felt children would benefit from interactive equipment, fit for encouraging outdoor play, as well as using the equipment in lesson plans if possible. This could help school pupils benefit from taking the classroom outside.

In the early planning stages, Monkton Primary took a ‘whole school ownership’ approach which saw input from previous headteacher Mr Halbert and current acting headteacher Mrs Ramsey who both, along with other staff, children and parents helped design the playground.

However, the equipment was very expensive, meaning a small village school was looking at a number of years to complete the project and obtain funding.

This was achieved successfully through fundraising efforts at Summer fetes, bag packing events, school discos and even designing and selling a school bag for life project.

A big thanks also goes to South Ayrshire Local Community Engagement Officer Lorraine McKenzie who showed great support advising the school about grants to apply for.

Participation and success in South Ayrshire’s “village decision day” events helped massively too.

Playground markings and new trim trail have been extremely popular with all the children at Monkton Primary and have also been included in a recent fundraising event, school obstacle course, organised and run by the P7 business group.

Monkton Parent Council would like to thank everybody involved for their support over the last four years.