Recognizing that outdoor playground play is essential to children’s physical, mental, and social development, Kawartha Heights Public School is making it a priority to install a new playground structure for their students.
The school council, comprised of parents and guardians, stakeholders, and community members, is taking the lead in an initiative to raise $150,000 to replace the existing playground structure that was torn down last year at the west-end elementary school.
As Ontario’s Ministry of Education does not fund playground structure replacements, it falls on school councils to raise the necessary funds. In recent years, playground fundraising campaigns have taken place at various Peterborough schools, including Prince of Wales Public School, Queen Mary Public School, and Kaawaate East City Public School.
“I really feel that a playground and that recess time is such a huge part of our education,” says Devon Anger, a parent to a third grader and school council chair. “We learn what makes a positive social relationship with our peers, and it gives us time to decompress from a very heavy morning or afternoon of learning.”
“It really is such an integral part of what these kids experience in a day. We feel like there is learning that takes place on the playground that’s so important, just as much as the curriculum that they get in the classroom.”
The school council is an advisory body that provides input and involvement to support the success of the public school, which serves students from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 6, by offering opportunities for enriching children’s education outside of the curriculum.
One responsibility of the council is caring for the playground. Annually, $1,500 of funds raised through council events are reserved to cover the costs of inspections for safety and necessary maintenance. During last year’s inspection, the council was told it would cost nearly $10,000 to make the necessary improvements to ensure the structure was safe for children.
“After putting all that money in and all that hard work to keep it, we couldn’t even guarantee we wouldn’t be in the same spot the following year,” Anger says. “After 20 years of serving our students well, we had to say farewell to our biggest play structure in the yard.”
“The school board came in and, at no cost to us, they took down the equipment and took it away. We were left with a very large pit of pea gravel — that the kids now take great joy in playing in and coming home dirty in — but it’s just not as stimulating as having an actual play structure for them.”
The new playground for which the council is currently fundraising will be safe, modern, and inclusive and enjoyed by students from Grades 1 to 6. Unlike the prior structure, the new one will be assembled in two pieces, making it easier to repair should problems arise in the future.
“The great thing about Kawartha Heights is there’s such a large community surrounding it of children that not just attend the school but go to all the surrounding schools — they come together and play in the Kawartha Heights playground,” Anger points out.
“We’re very lucky we back on to a nature area, so kids come to our playground from all over to play on the structures and to play on the nature area. So, it (the new playground) doesn’t just benefit our students directly, but everybody in the community that has family.”
Anger says the council hopes the $150,000 fundraising goal for the playground, which doesn’t include installation fees, won’t significantly impact the council’s ability to organize events for students and the community.
“We try not to take away from those opportunities, but certainly we can’t have as many as we would like in order to help grow this pot for the playground,” Anger says. “We’re still trying to do all the things, but we are putting more into the pot for the playground than we would be necessarily into some of the other activities.”
Through events over the last school year, the council has already raised $16,000 from the community. Upcoming fundraising events include a winter social, the year-end fun fair, and a Peterborough Petes game.
Monetary donations to the playground project can be made through SchoolCash Online, and the council is also accepting non-monetary donations as prizes during fundraising events.
“I have memories of that very playground structure,” Anger says. “To see that not there for my son, and his experience having been altered because we’ve had to lose out on that is just such a sad thing. It really hits home and to see something put in there for all of them would just be so heartwarming and so gratifying.”
For larger monetary donations, sponsorship opportunities are also available. For more information, contact Kawartha Heights Public School at kawarthaheightsps@kprdsb.ca or 705-742-7521.
