School Grounds: Impacting the Community

School grounds are environments that are central to a local community and are often the only safe, open, green space that children have access to, especially in socially deprived and densely populated areas. They shape local attitudes towards the school and can also influence the impressions of passers-by and people within the local community.

School grounds also enable the local community to engage with the school through activities, events and outdoor facilities for play, sports and social use, and can therefore be a valuable community resource offering.

Getting the Community on Board

Working with your local community on plans for school grounds improvements is a great way to gain a workforce for a variety of duties and also promote a sense of ownership within the community.

You will be surprised how many people in the local community will be pleased to help out just by digging or clearing. You may even be lucky enough to find that valuable skills such as painting, building and gardening may be at hand.

As a stronger sense of community ownership grows, you will find that it is less likely that the school’s grounds will be vandalised. The hard work of friends and family members will be noticed by the pupils and other members of the community.

Learning New skills

Involving children in action planning and decision making for the grounds with members of the community, will enable them to learn new skills that will help them to become active citizens.

The grounds can also enable the wider community to develop new skills by offering an environment for allotments, or allowing members of the community to manage spaces within the grounds for conservation.

Facilities on the Grounds

Facilities for sports, play and social use, both inside and outside of school hours, are a valuable community resource. School grounds can provide a space for local sports clubs and areas for youth clubs and out of school clubs such as Scouts and Girl Guides. These all help the local community, provide the children with positive activities and of course help schools raise extra funding that may be used for projects to improve the grounds and outdoor facilities.

Community Events

Using the school grounds for social events can also improve community cohesion by providing a space for local social gatherings, and community interaction. Fetes, performances, sports days and ‘street’ parties will again promote the space as a community owned environment and also aid the school in raising extra funds.

The Heart of the Community

The overall impact that your school grounds can have on your community can be enormously positive, drawing the members of the community together, providing opportunities for fun and learning, raising funds for the school and providing activities for the whole community to enjoy.

Learning through Landscapes is the national school grounds charity, and helps schools and early years settings make the most of their outdoor spaces. For more information or advice visit www.ltl.org.uk or call 01962 845811.