The transformed outdoor grounds at The Hill Primary, which took 18 months to develop and involved input from a whole community, are now ready to be enjoyed by the school’s youngsters.

Two of the newly completed areas include exploration mazes, a ‘Willow Dome’, imaginative sculptures inspired by the children’s designs, hard surfaces for games and a staged area to encourage speaking and listening.

The third creative space aims to stimulate interest and awareness in healthy eating and children will grow plants and vegetables.

After head teacher Sarah Creighton decided the derelict areas surrounding the school in Thurnscoe were in desperate need of a makeover, Creative Partnerships Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham (CP BDR) got involved.

Creative design consultant, James Copp and sculptor Dan Jones encouraged the youngsters to use collage, digital and 3-D models and their own aspirations to decide how the areas should look.

The design process was hugely collaborative and involved everyone from parents and ex-pupils to Landscape and Architecture students from Leeds Metropolitan University.

Artist Hilary Cartmel worked with children as young as four years-old to create the designs for one of the area’s colourful sculptures, while local builders and construction students from Barnsley College have been involved in the construction phase.

Head teacher, Sarah Creighton hopes to incorporate these creative principles into the school’s wider curriculum and a recent OFSTED inspection gave The Hill Primary ‘outstanding’ for Foundation Stage and for care, guidance and support.

Mrs Creighton said,

“We have changed the physical landscape of the school grounds to provide better opportunities for our pupils – we want to give them the best start in life.”

“This new environment will support the creative curriculum that we hope to implement at The Hill. Parents are amazed at our creative and stimulating spaces which were once unusable and overgrown.”

“Our involvement with Creative Partnerships BDR has been tremendous and this will benefit our pupils long term – youngsters need to climb, explore and invent. Unlike a one-off event, this will leave a legacy.”

‘Dare to be Creative’ is the programme for Creative Partnerships in Barnsley, Doncaster and Rotherham (BDR) which is run by Sero Creative, specialists in building relationships between education and the creative industries.