EDUCATION - PRIMARY SCHOOLS
St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, Pickering, is committed to raising the profile of sport and active lifestyles for all pupils. It provides a wide range of sporting opportunities at the school. They decided an outdoor gym would be the perfect facility to compliment their PE offering.
To enhance the existing offering and to provide equipment that any child can use, regardless of fitness level, St Joseph’s commissioned Fresh Air Fitness to provide an outdoor gym zone on site.
The outdoor gym would provide pupils with a non-competitive, inclusive, exercise environment to increase engagement with physical activity across the school.
The school received a site visit from Fresh Air Fitness. One of our friendly and knowledgeable outdoor gym experts met and consulted with the senior leadership team and pupil council to understand their objectives, mission, and vision to ensure that the offering aligned with these.
We discussed who would be using their new outdoor gym equipment, the age of the children and how many would be using the equipment at once, plus the fitness abilities and goals.
We talked through the potential mix of equipment within the available budget and provided a raft of information on special offers plus supporting literature.
An install space was agreed upon and a date was set!
Fresh Air Fitness installed our primary schools’ 15-user outdoor gym bumper package which was supplied with grass mats. The Bumper Package is our most popular outdoor gym bundle and includes our 6 most requested products which allows multiple users to exercise at once.
The school chose grass mats for surfacing as they are durable and provide an all-weather, non-slip surface. When the grass grows back through the mats you are left with a seamless finish with the natural surroundings.
The 15-User Bumper Package includes:
Double Cross Country Skier – This popular piece allows two children to exercise at once. It exercises the whole body, improving balance and coordination as well as providing an excellent cardiovascular workout. Exercising in pairs has never been more fun!
T'ai Chi Spinners - Patting your head and rubbing your tummy is a classic example of where the ‘movement centres’ of the brain are trying to process and send signals for two different movement tasks at the same time. The brilliant T’ai Chi spinners induce the same bilateral movements of the arms, calling upon the motor cortices across the brain’s hemispheres during exercise, meaning you get a body and mind workout simultaneously.
Seated Leg Press – Perfect for exercising the large leg muscles, working opposite each other naturally encourages bigger, longer presses.
Air Skier – Swinging while standing provides endless fun. Pupils can challenge themselves to change direction from side to side to back and forth – and keep the momentum going.
Hip Twister – Twists are great for spine mobility and back strength. They are also good for expanding the body’s natural range of motion. Twists give us an instant energy lift and decompress the vertebrae in a safe, healthy way.
Cardio Combi – the body benefits of the Cardio Combi with allows four pupils to exercise at once, include an excellent cardio workout, as well as building strength, flexibility, balance and coordination.
Thinking of researching the possibility of an outdoor gym at your school but not sure if your school can find the budget? Our experts are on hand to take the work out of the funding process for you. Many of our installations have been successful due to funding support, including many outdoor gym projects which have been 100% funded! Read more and view our free Funding Guide today.
Fresh Air Fitness is a leading provider of outdoor gym equipment. We have worked with hundreds of primary schools across the UK, installing outdoor gyms from our exciting children's range.
We know that to be successful in the long term, exercise needs to be enjoyable, and research shows that children really enjoy using our gyms, from the very sporty to those who would normally shy away from organised physical activity.