Five critical things you should know before installing Outdoor Gym Equipment at your primary school
11th February 2021
Outdoor gym equipment in a school environment offers many benefits. They’re easy and fun to use, can be used as part of PE lessons or general play, and they’ll help you support the Chief Medical Officer’s guidance that children should be active for at last 60 minutes a day.
But where do you start? Here are 5 essential things you should consider when looking for a supplier partner for the project.
It is vital that the partner you select has significant experience in the outdoor gym equipment area, so that they can advise on the best location and the best mix of equipment to maximise the investment being made. A specialist supplier is often best placed to provide detailed advice because they are experts in their specific field.
Check that the equipment a specific children’s range and not adult’s equipment, the latter only being suitable for people more than 1.4 metres in height. Adult’s equipment is not specifically designed for KS1 and KS2 pupils and so the children will not receive the full benefit of the equipment.
You should also check the warranties offered by the supplier. There should be substantial warranties offered against the main structures, paint finishes designed to avoid rusting. At Fresh Air Fitness, we offer 25 years warranty on the main equipment structures and 5 years on paint finishes.
Once the equipment is installed the school wants to make sure that school staff and children understand that full benefits of each piece of outdoor gym equipment and the safety aspects.
Key support collateral to achieve this can include:
A flexible way of delivering such guidance is through online tools. We have found our animations incredibly popular. They can be accessed via our YouTube channel, a simple and flexible way to deliver both health and safety information and best practice benefits of the use of outdoor gym equipment to both staff and children alike. Fresh Air Fitness - YouTube
Specialist suppliers should be able to supply specific lesson planners which will guide teachers, teaching assistants and lunchtime supervisors on how the equipment can be used and benefit maximised.
Suppliers should have the capacity and knowledge to deliver on site training to support an installation.
A good sign that after sales support is taken seriously can be indicated by a supplier having a separate service desk, ready to deal with any queries, and their own in-house maintenance team to fix any post installation issues effectively.
The equipment is low maintenance and requires a few regular checks. On completion of the installation, the supplier should leave with you an operational maintenance manual, which outlines the regular maintenance checks that need to be undertaken by the schools, usually be a site manager or caretaker.
You should also receive a maintenance pack, which will contain Allen keys and touch up paint to help ongoing maintenance duties.
Please ensure that the maintenance checks that you are being asked to perform are not onerous and will not impinge on the validity of your warranties. Examples of onerous terms could be:
- Commitments to provide and use a specialist cavity wax on the non-galvanised welds of equipment every 6 months to keep warranties valid. Non- galvanised welds are more likely to rust and fail. All Fresh Air Fitness equipment and their welds is treated such that it does not require such maintenance service.
- The logging of every maintenance check on a supplier portal with any non or late submission invalidating warranties.
Fresh Air Fitness have over 1,000 installations into schools across the UK and the results really do speak for themselves. Our website will give you further information on who we are, how we operate, funding opportunies, our products, warranties and numerous case studies.
If you would like to find out more or if you have any further questions, please contact us at sales@freshairfitness.co.uk or call 01483 608860.
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