Who builds and upgrades playgrounds for NSW schools?

Monument Environments builds and upgrades playgrounds for NSW public schools, delivering directly for the NSW Department of Education as principal contractor. The jobs vary a lot in size, with a preschool play area at one end and a whole campus at the other.

Playgrounds sit in one of Monument's eight capability categories, alongside whole-of-school landscaping, preschool environments and softfall. At Carlingford Public School, for example, its work included a playground as well as a cricket pitch and long jump.

Preschool play areas

At Busby West Public School and Rosehill Public School, Monument upgraded the preschool playgrounds. Work like this gives an early-learning space new surfacing, softfall and seating so children can play safely, and it is typically delivered quickly with little disruption.

More on that work is in how preschool playgrounds are resurfaced with new softfall.

Softfall

The surface under play equipment has to soften a fall from the highest point a child can fall from, called the free height of fall. That height sets the material and its depth, so softfall is specified like a safety system, as explained in how playground softfall is specified.

Asphalt playgrounds

Open asphalt covers a lot of primary school grounds, and it wears out. Monument has resurfaced asphalt at Athelstane Public School in Arncliffe, Beresford Road Public School in Greystanes and Ebenezer Public School, removing the old surface and laying new, often with drainage, sub-base, line marking and equipment work alongside.

Whether asphalt or concrete suits an area better is covered in whether a school playground should be asphalt or concrete.

Whole-of-school upgrades

Some schools need the whole campus done at once. A whole-of-school upgrade covers landscaping, resurfacing and new playground works across the entire campus, staged so the school keeps operating safely and on time, and it can include civil works such as a new emergency vehicle driveway.

Monument delivered whole-of-school landscaping and civil works at Edgeware School in Hurlstone Park. The approach is in how a whole-of-school upgrade is delivered.

The playground in use

Students head for the playground at every break, which makes it the hardest part of a school to close. The work area is fenced, plant movements are supervised full-time, and larger jobs are timed for the holidays so the area reopens for the new term.

Where the whole area cannot close at once, it is handed back in stages. That way students keep some of their play space while the rest is built.

See our work