Pupils buy a Buddy Bench to promote friendship and caring at Titchfield Primary School.

Young Governors at Titchfield Primary School have helped to design and pay for a new Buddy Bench for their school playground. Buddy benches and Friendship seats are used in many schools to address loneliness and foster friendship in the playground. The idea is that any children who are looking for someone to play with them, who are upset, or who wish to talk about a concern can go to the Buddy Bench. Lunchtime supervisors, designated buddy pupils or any pupil can foster a sense of friendship by looking after, chatting to or playing with a child sitting on a Buddy Bench. Neptune Street Furniture, a local company who have been manufacturing park and school playground furniture since the 1960’s were delighted to help the children by coming up with a range of design concepts to put forward to the school PTA. “Starting with our standard products, we looked at what material would provide the school with a low maintenance and hard wearing solution that could be customised to meet the children’s ideas and expectations. We then provided several design ideas and colour schemes for the children to work with.” Explained Alan Gingell, MD of Neptune Street Furniture. In this instance the PTA chose brightly coloured recycled plastic for their seat and then the schools Young Governors voted on their favourite inspirational phrase to be engraved into the seat slats. It was decided that hand prints would be a fun and friendly addition to the design and several of the children from different years at the school were invited to Neptune Street Furniture’s factory, where the furniture is manufactured, to paint hand prints that would later be CNC engraved into the seat slats. Neptune Street Furniture manufacture a large range of brightly coloured recycled plastic furniture and kindly donated a matching litter bin to the school, to acknowledge all the hard work by the Young Governors and PTA. The pupils were delighted with the end result and thought the Buddy Bench would not only be a colourful and fun addition to their playground but be a lasting legacy for the school, helping to cherish friendships and promote caring for many years to come.

For more information on Pupils buy a Buddy Bench to promote friendship and caring at Titchfield Primary School. talk to Neptune Street Furniture