THE CHILDREN OF THE PLAYGROUND REVOLUTION

Award winning artists Snug & Outdoor and Sutcliffe Play, one of the leading designers and manufacturers of children’s play equipment, have announced the arrival of ‘Snug’, a revolutionary new concept for school playgrounds.

The Snug kit is designed to transform bleak playgrounds into dynamic and creative playscapes for children to explore, create, discover and learn.  The kit, comprising nine large scale, inter-related, colourful, flexible shapes can be reconfigured by children to vary their surroundings.

The Snug concept is the result of a fifteen year process of research and evaluation into the way that children behave, react and play in specific environments. The inclusion of the kit into schools will allow children to develop new ways of playing and encourages creativity, social interaction and cooperation.

Brother & sister team, Tim and Hattie Coppard, Directors of Snug & Outdoor, and the artists behind Snug, have extensive experience in designing imaginative projects for school playgrounds. Their motivation to develop Snug came from observing how bleak and barren environments can create aggressive and stressed children.

Hattie comments, "We've seen how the Snug kit can transform the culture in a school playground, helping children take control of their play, so they can learn for themselves about social skills, friendship, imagination, physical exploration and fun."

It is for this reason that the nine large flexible Snug shapes can be moved, joined and arranged by children themselves, to create new environments for play including places to perform, dens and sanctuaries.

Snug changes the established patterns of behaviour in the school playground by engaging children’s imaginations and giving them the satisfaction of being able to change their own surroundings.

Snug is soft and tactile yet robust enough to withstand the rigours of the playground.  The Snug shapes are easy to fit together and can be moved, locked or taken apart by children, used individually or together as part of a landscape.

Head teacher Helen Fletcher-Davies of South Farnborough School trialled Snug and vouches for the benefits and the changes it brings to the playground, “Snug changes the way children behave and interact, the creativity is fantastic, it’s enriched their language and children will get the benefit of this for years.”

In addition to the fun element and the dramatic impact that the kit has on how a traditional school playground looks and feels, Snug provides a creative resource that supports learning and government initiatives, including Every Child Matters and Learning outside the Classroom.

As the obesity war rages on and new solutions are sought to encourage children to be more active Snug also provides an excellent way for children to expend energy. 

As pupils engage with Snug and become involved in creating their own surroundings they are constantly moving the pieces around, creating a focus for physical activity, far more than with conventional play spaces.

An in depth independent evaluation carried out by Fiona Godfrey concluded “At all key stages Snug was seen to have a particular contribution to make to the social and emotional aspects of children’s development and learning….. (Snug) was observed to facilitate children’s own creativity; with children seen exercising their curiosity, exploring possibilities, making connections between different objects and between objects and ideas, experimenting, trying things out, taking risks, testing and reviewing, using and showing their creations and being motivated to solve problems.”

Generous funding from NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts), Arts Council and the Esmée Fairbairn Charitable Foundation, enabled Snug & Outdoor to join forces with the Design Laboratory at Central St Martin’s College of Art and the Institute of Education at London University, to thoroughly research and test the Snug design.

Helen Gresty, Executive Director of Innovation Programmes at NESTA said;

“We’ve learnt that creativity and a healthy attitude to play are going to be some of the most vital skills for young people in the future. Snug’s innovative design challenges young minds at the earliest stage and encourages creative thinking. We look forward to following the success of Snug.”

The kit is being manufactured by Sutcliffe Play based in Upton, West Yorkshire.

“From the first time that I saw Snug at a seminar with Hattie, I knew that this product embodied all the core values and principles of Sutcliffe Play, child centred, innovative and well designed and I knew that the original creative partners needed us to turn it from dream to reality”, concludes Robin Sutcliffe, Managing Director of Sutcliffe Play.

Snug encourages social interaction and cooperation

Snug provides great opportunities for children to work in teams. It changes the psychology of the playground and encourages children of all ages, boys and girls to play together.  Speaking, listening and conflict resolution skills are all developed. In essence, Snug makes a real contribution to a child’s well being and their social and emotional development.  The moveable Snug units do not permanently monopolise any one part of the play area. And there’s no crowding with Snug – everybody gets a turn.