Many schools throughout America take breaks throughout the day, allowing children to play outdoors. In fact, 73% of elementary school districts throughout the United States allow children to spend time taking part in recess. Providing recess time for students help ensure they achieve a daily goal of 60 minutes per day of moderate exercise, ensuring they maintain a healthy weight. With that in mind, your school’s playground equipment will wear down over time. Therefore, it’s wise to perform preventative maintenance on school playground equipment during the summer months. Considering that, here are five steps for proper school playground maintenance during the summer.
- Secure the Area Around Your School’s Playground
During the summer, children of all ages often have a lot of free time on their hands. Unfortunately, certain people might use this time to try and sneak onto your school’s playground. Making matters worse, certain individuals who are attempting to sneak in might have bad intentions including causing damage to playground equipment. If you haven’t already, it’s wise to use the summer months to strengthen the security of your school’s playground. You can do this by installing alarm systems or fences. - Have Professionals Inspect Playground Conditions
In order for a playground to remain safe, these areas need to receive a professional inspection. During these inspections, it’s important for professionals to take note of any and all problems that need to be taken care of. These inspections should also include a thorough check of your playground’s surfacing materials. - Keep Accurate Records of Playground Inspections
Having someone inspect your school’s playground is a wise decision. However, it’s easy for school officials to forget when these inspections took place without accurate records. With that in mind, it’s a good idea to maintain records that detail each inspection. In turn, your school can utilize this information to avoid running into any sudden problems with its playground. - Ensure Playground Manuals are Available for Maintenance Workers
It’s difficult for workers to take care of playground equipment problems without knowing what to look for. Considering that, you’ll want to make sure that playground manuals are available for maintenance workers. Every piece of playground equipment from horse spring riders to swing sets often come with manuals. Keeping these documents handy could end up preventing major repair issues from taking place. - Remove All Bug Nests
Unfortunately, many types of dangerous bugs are known to thrive during the summertime. Considering that, many of these bugs are likely to build nests on unused playground equipment. You don’t want children to begin the school year by playing on horse spring riders and other types of equipment that harbors bee and wasp nests. Therefore, it’s wise to have a pest control company visit your playground to inspect and remove any sources of insects they come across.
In conclusion, it’s wise to perform summertime maintenance on your school’s outdoor playground equipment. You might also use these summer months to add new equipment to your school’s playground. In fact, research shows that rebuilding a playground increases children’s playtime on these play structures by up to 66%. If your school needs new horse spring riders, slides, or other items, you’ll want to think about contacting a provider of quality outdoor playground equipment.
