The playground for our older Junior School students has extended and enriched their play. By creating a versatile, nature-focused setting, with lots of challenge and variety, we’ve ensured students can enjoy active, imaginative play in a way that feels both engaging and age appropriate.”
Hannah Jeffs | Head of Junior School | Wellington College International School Bangkok
An International School in Thailand sets the benchmark for play-based learning for senior primary students
Wellington College International School Bangkok has reimagined play for its Year 5 and Year 6 students with a playground designed to deliver more challenge, more choice and more opportunities to connect.
Following the success of their first collaboration with Playground Centre to design and build a playspace for the Junior School’s younger students, this next addition to their campus extends the benefits of innovative playground design into the senior primary school years.
Together, we’ve created a dynamic space that children naturally gravitate to during playtimes and build confidence, friendships and new skills every week.
Playground design for the senior primary years
For older primary learners, play continues to fuel physical, cognitive and social growth. With this in mind, the school set clear objectives for a nature-focused, adventure-rich playground designed to meet the development needs of children aged 9-11 years.
The space needed to:
- Offer variety – from high-energy adventurous play to quieter, social zones
- Remain engaging as students grow, with age-appropriate challenges
- Incorporate natural materials and a more mature aesthetic, and
- Encourage outdoor activity while accommodating Bangkok’s climate.
Students themselves shaped key elements of the design. Their wish for a ‘treehouse-style’ play experience inspired roped structures and climbing challenges, while their enthusiasm for ‘ninja warrior-style’ play led to fitness and agility-building features being incorporated into the playground’s design and layout.
A collaborative journey from playground design to build
The strong partnership established during the Junior School’s first playground project, continued through this project, with the Playground Centre team lending their expert advice and support from the early design stages right through to construction:
- Translating student and staff ideas into detailed concept designs
- Providing 3D renders to support decision making and approvals
- Advising on equipment selection, materials and weather-resilient finishes
- Ensuring the environment remained natural, durable and age-appropriate
- Working closely with local teams to support a smooth installation.
According to Head of Junior School, Hannah Jeffs: “I was impressed by the way Playground Centre took the concepts we shared and used the space we had to create a playground perfectly suited to our children. The designs really allowed us to see what the playground would look like before it was built”.
A harmonious blend of high-energy fun and chill-out zones
To bring the designs on paper to life, Playground Centre manufactured and supplied a purposefully selected mix of items from its range of adventure playground equipment for schools. This included:
- A bespoke fusion of the Eagles Nest with Bridge and Hex Tower with Tube Slide delivering the treehouse-style climbing adventures the students wanted.
- Fun and fitness-focused play pieces including a 3m Ninja Climbing Wall and Up and Over, Zig Zag Walk and Angled Wall Jumps – promoting strength and coordination.
- A 2m Spider Web Net and Trampoline Pi designed to build balance, encourageproblem solving and energetic movement.
- A Lazy Daisy Hammock where students can read, rest or simply hang outtogether.
In collaboration with our NZ sister company, Urban Effects, we also supplied outdoor furniture to support the creation of zones for socialising and study, including a Legend Epic Curved Bench and Liffiton Table Settings.
Feedback has been strong across the school community – not only from students, but also parents and teachers who see how the playspace has boosted engagement and appreciate the stand-out quality of the equipment and development-rich play experience they have provided for the children.
As Hannah Jeffs says: “The quality of the play equipment really does stand out as something of excellence for a school in Thailand, where play equipment of this nature is not commonly found”.
Design a playspace that inspire your young learners
At Playground Centre, we partner with schools and preschools in Thailand and across South East Asia to deliver playground equipment for schools that inspires active learning, creativity and wellbeing.
Talk to one of our school playground design and build specialists today.
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