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As an industry leader, A-Play campaigns for the betterment of play opportunities for children across Australia. In a Blog post in November last year I asked ‘Where have all the playgrounds gone?’ This was referring to the demise of many playgrounds to make way for new buildings as part of the Government’s Building the Education Revolution (BER) program.

Following intense lobbying across Government to bring attention to this issue, it was extremely satisfying to learn of the Victorian Government’s recent announcement to allocate $5m to the reinstratement of school playgrounds lost through BER works.

If your school playground has been affected by BER works, you may be eligible for playground restoration funding. For advice you can contact us. We’ll be happy to steer you in the right direction.

Clearly, Victorian schools were not the only ones impacted and we’re continuing in our quest to have this issue addressed across the country.

Dean Joel

This week, Councillor Rodney Degens of Coffs Harbour City Council put forward the idea of a playground for seniors?

Some thought his idea was crazy. What, swings and slides for granny?

Not exactly, the Councillor was putting forward the concept of outdoor gyms accessible to seniors as a means of getting seniors in the community more active. As Councillor Degens put it, “As we are all getting older and in our turn becoming seniors, shouldn’t we desire that these seniors remain as healthy as they can, as flexible and as self-reliant as possible?”

The article grabbed the attention of the media and was run by the local daily and radio station. The newspaper article can be found here

The idea of calling outdoor gyms ‘Playgrounds for Seniors’ is a good one. After all, working out in parks should be fun!

Why should kids have all the fun? Why do so many adults stop exercising as soon as they’ve grown out of playground equipment? What can we do to get teenagers through to seniors more active?

We have the answer. A-Play have just launched a new division, Fit-for-Parks. This new division offers an exciting range of outdoor gym equipment designed to keep adults active. It’s fun to use but offers serious fitness benefits. The range has been designed to provide accessible facilities in public spaces, adding a further dimension to a stroll through the park. There are a multiple fitness stations offering exercises that work every part of the body.

Fit-for-Parks is supported by detailed but easy to follow exercise instructions on each item of equipment.

It offers a wonderful opportunity to help create healthier communities. More information will be posted to our website soon.

Love it or hate, the Building the Education Revolution (BER) Program has been great in terms of updating facilities for schools. Across the country you’ll find new libraries, labs, multi-purpose centres, etc. Kids now have greatly improved indoor facilities at school.

But what about the playgrounds?

Over the past 18 months we’ve seen an increasing number of schools that have had playground equipment removed to make way for new buildings. What should be happening is that the existing playground equipment (if still compliant i.e. post 2004 and in reasonable condition) should be relocated. However we are seeing cases where this is not happening. As a result children are being left with less play opportunities. This leads to a host of other issues important in children’s development.

We’re keen to see the Government set aside funding for the restoration of playgrounds as the BER projects are brought to conclusion.

If you know of schools where this problem has occurred please write to us. The more evidence we can present, the stronger our case!

I’m Dean Joel, the Managing Director and owner of A-Play (formerly Australasian Playgrounds). Welcome to our ‘Playground Trends’ blog. This blog has been launched to share developments and trends in playground design and development and to tackle issues critical to the health and well being for our children, and ourselves.

We’ve been designing and building playground equipment for more than 15 years and during that time have installed more than 4500 of them around Australia. We exist for the benefit of children. Fun, challenge, adventure, excitement and growth are words we use every day in our quest to innovate new play environments.

As a society, a number of challenges stand in the way of our nurturing a healthier generation of children. While medical science continues to achieve breakthroughs our lifestyles are leading to a growing number of health issues amongst our children. Childhood obesity is rapidly becoming an epidemic. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) one-quarter of all Australian children, or around 600,000 children aged 5–17 years, are overweight or obese. It is now well recognised that children who are overweight or obese are at increased risk of developing cardiovascular problems and Type 2 diabetes amongst other issues. They also have a higher risk of psychological and social problems, such as discrimination, victimisation and bullying. Obesity, in particular, may continue into adulthood and affect long-term health.

This alarming trend can be reversed and key factor is increasing the level of physical activity amongst children. Physical Education programs and more physical play time are key building blocks. Government policy, increasing the level of physical education in schools and more fun and safe outdoor play environments are positive strategies for addressing the problem.

My aim, is to share positive trends, ideas and developments so that together we can help foster increasingly happy and healthy children.