Osoyoos Elementary School Principal Dave Foster (left) and Danielle Higginson, treasuerer of the parent advisory council (right) gave an update on the school’s natural playground project on Thursday at the Rotary Club of Osoyoos. Also pictured is Rotary President Brian Rawlings. (Richard McGuire photo)
Plans for a natural playground at Osoyoos Elementary School are moving forward and the Parent Advisory Council (PAC) is considering several designs.
That update was provided by Danielle Higginson, PAC treasurer, and Principal Dave Foster at a recent meeting of the Rotary Club of Osoyoos.
Rotary is a major contributor to the project, donating $28,000 of the roughly $70,000 that has been raised to date for the project.
“We’re currently exploring options,” said Higginson, who gave a slide show of some of the designs being considered.
The natural playground will be installed in the playground below the hill next to 89th Street, where there are currently large tires for climbing.
The PAC has met with four companies so far, of which three have provided designs with several options.
The designs can be customized, adding or removing pieces, either to add features or reduce costs, Higginson said.
The idea is to provide a less structured play space for children, said Higginson.
“As we know, many children today spend hours behind the screens,” she said referring to electronics such as televisions, computers and smartphones. “They have lost what generations before them had, which was time – they had time to play with others, time outside and opportunities to use their imaginations.”
Nature-based play equipment allows children to create their own play instead of the play being scripted for them, as occurs with traditional play equipment, she said.
The designs range in price from around $65,000 to $95,000 depending on complexity. They are built with logs in different configurations ranging from climbing apparatuses to one course that Higginson said reminds her “almost of a boot camp.”
When one visiting Rotarian asked about the potential for injuries, Foster pointed out that the school board must approve it and there will be a safety analysis. The surface underneath will also meet standards, he said.
Higginson noted that the playground equipment must be Canadian Standards Association (CSA) approved.
Some Rotarians pointed out that children are resilient and accidents can happen on traditional play equipment as well.
Higginson was unable to provide a date for when construction will take place. The original hope was to have it ready by September.
Foster later underlined the impact that electronic devices are having on children in the school district, pointing to results of Middle Years Development Index (MDI) testing on students in Grades 4 and 7.
The tests measure social-emotional development and children in School District 53 scored well in most of the measures, with one glaring exception – nutrition and sleep.
“Even though we’re doing interventions at the school and talking about it, we still have some ways to go with nutrition and sleep in helping those kids,” said Foster.
He put the blame squarely on electronic devices, which some children take into their bedrooms and use at night.
“Is it beside your pillow? Is it beside your bed? Are you checking it? Are people texting you at 11 p.m.?” Foster asks.
He said he makes his own children put their devices in a basket in the living room at night so they aren’t in their bedrooms, though he admits he doesn’t always follow the rules himself.
Richard McGuire
Osoyoos Times
