FUNDING GUIDE FOR SCHOOL PLAYGROUNDS

How do you quantify the kind of funding that you’re going to need for a school playground project – and ensure that you get everything you need for the budget you have? This can often feel like a very blank page with not much guidance but it’s important to make sure that you approach funding for school playgrounds in the right way so that you get the most out of a project and don’t waste money. Here is our guide on how to achieve that.

Get clear on exactly what you want the project to achieve

The first part of any project is clarity. You need to ensure that you’re absolutely clear on all the key aspects of the school playground project before you start looking at funding. With that in mind, these are some of the key questions that you should be looking to ask:

• What is the primary purpose of the playground and what need is it going to fulfill?
• Who are you creating the playground for?
• What are the benefits that you want the playground to create for your school?
• What kind of timeline have you set for completion of the project?
• What are the goals for the playground?
• Have you considered the space you have available and how best to use it?
• Is there any planning permission required for the playground you have in mind?

Create the right team

When you’re looking at funding for school playgrounds there are lots of different people who can provide input on how to get what you need to bring the playground to life. That’s why it’s so important to build a team who can work together on the project. That team could consist of, for example, staff from the school, members of the PTA, school governors, pupils who can have constructive input as well as members of the school council. Sometimes, it takes a village to make a project come to life and all of these team members may have something valuable to add.

Look at the different options

Funding for school playgrounds can come from a variety of different sources and it’s worth considering everything when you’re keen to enhance the school grounds like this. Here are few to look at:

• Fundraising via the school. Any type of event could potentially raise funds for a new playground. That could be anything, from a school quiz to a fayre or a fete.
• External funding sources. Again, there’s a very wide range of different options when it comes to external funding sources, whether that’s a school benefactor or something like The National Lottery Community Fund.
• Grants and help. It’s also worth investigating whether there might be a grant that could support the building of a school playground – there are a number of funds and foundations that offer these and most are easily findable via Google.

Funding for school playgrounds is a combination of knowing what you’re hoping to achieve and then finding the right funding source to help you achieve it.

For more information on FUNDING GUIDE FOR SCHOOL PLAYGROUNDS talk to Caloo Ltd