The proposals of the centers are based on the concerns of the teaching staff, but also on the opinion of families and schoolchildren
The mayor, José Antonio Serrano, presented the ‘Coeducational Playgrounds’ project at the city’s CEIP Andrés Baquero, which will reach ten schools in the municipality, according to sources from the Consistory. This program was born with the idea of advancing co-education in the schools of the municipality of Murcia, making them participate in the redesign of their outdoor spaces that were traditionally used only for physical exercise or during breaks.
The proposals of the centers are based, on the one hand, on the concerns of the teaching staff, but also on the opinion of families and schoolchildren, in order to make the school a collective project of the entire school community. In this way, in a first phase, an investment of more than 300,000 euros will be invested in the playgrounds of ten schools in the municipality.
Serrano explained that “the ‘Co-educational Courtyards’ project was born as a totally new initiative launched by the Murcia City Council and with which it is intended to give life again to outdoor spaces in schools, which have been abandoned for too many years. ».
Specifically, the first educational centers in which this project is going to be implemented are CEIP Pintor Pedro Cano (El Palmar); CEIP Monteazahar (Beniaján); CEIP Our Lady of La Arrixaca (Murcia); CEIP Infanta Cristina (Bacon Bridge); CEIP Andrés Baquero (Murcia); CEIP Juan de la Cierva (Casillas); CEIP Los Alamos (Murcia); CEIP Our Lady of Carmen (Murcia); CEIP Ramón Gaya (Bacon Bridge); and CEIP City of Peace (El Palmar).
These interventions will consist, among other actions, of incorporating some elements into the exterior life of the schools, such as shaded areas for proper use of the patios in the hottest months, since it is essential to expand the shaded areas in the vast majority of the centers.
In this sense, the proposals mainly include two strategies such as the planting of mulberry trees (which, being deciduous, cast quality shade in hot weather and lose their leaves in winter, allowing the sun to pass through) and retractable awnings, very practical in summer and whose roof can be collected in winter.
Another of the measures will be to install tables with benches that will be grouped in such a way that they can accommodate a complete group of students, allow classes to be held in the courtyard (the so-called Exterior Classrooms), in addition to promoting the use of board games, reading and the drawing. For greater versatility, they will not be fixed to the ground.
Climbing walls and ping pong tables in the courtyards to facilitate climbing and table tennis as an alternative to more traditional sports such as football or basketball, which are already practiced in the centers. In addition, Psychomotricity Games will be installed, very suitable for Infant and Primary children to correctly develop their motor skills.
The plan will also include painting murals to improve the aesthetic appearance of many walls of the centers. These murals will be educational and, in addition to decorating, children will be able to learn the parts of the flower, the water cycle, in a more informal way than if they were in class.
The ‘new’ patios will have soft pavements through which many concrete or gravel areas will be transformed into rest and play areas for children, where they can go to read or carry out quieter activities, either sitting or lying down. They will be accompanied by the installation of large outdoor blackboards, so that children can develop their creativity.
The mayor of Murcia explained that “one of the positive effects that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the education sector is the more intense use of outdoor spaces in schools, not only in sports or for recreation, but also for academic activities.
For this reason, this program will serve to zone the playgrounds with more active areas, where schoolchildren can play and do sports, and others where they can carry out activities that require a quieter environment such as board games, but also artistic ones such as painting, theater or reading.
These actions will be complemented with natural spaces with planting of aromatic species, shrubs, artificial grass and trees that generate shade. Thus, this program “aims to encourage outdoor space to be a more egalitarian environment, where age or sex does not matter, for recreation but also for education, and trying to stop it from being a desolate space with elements that, frequently, do not they are optimal for a global school environment,” Serrano said.
Future calls
For his part, the Councilor for Education, Antonio Benito, explained that the schools whose proposals were not selected in this first call will be advised so that their proposals improve and they can access the next call with guarantees.
These designs may be carried out both with the City Council’s own funds and with resources from the schools themselves, through contributions from the associations of mothers and fathers (AMPA), or through national or regional programmes.
The councilman added that “this project is part of a global project for the general improvement of the infrastructure of the Early Childhood and Primary schools in the municipality in which the Department has been working intensely for months.”
School Board Approved
This project was presented and approved unanimously in the plenary session of the School Council of the municipality of Murcia held at the end of last year, after having previously been open to contributions and improvements by the educational agents of the municipality. In this way, already in November the first call was published so that educational centers could present their ideas to transform their patios.
Once the term closed on January 16, there were 24 schools that presented themselves. After being evaluated by municipal technicians, finally the Department of Education prepares, through Urbamusa, the 11 best valued projects.
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