Outdoor Classroom at Hobletts Manor Infant School

Hobletts Manor Infants’ & Nursery School needed to create a flexible, outdoor space that would give them room to work and play. Headteacher Mrs Wendy Hull tells us how they have benefited from their Learning Escape.

Why did you want to develop an outdoor learning space?

We had used up every available space within our main school building and didn’t have room for anything else. We wanted to develop a dedicated space for children and adults to engage in a range of activities. The new space would enable them to take part in Play Therapy and ‘Talking Partners’ and would act as a meeting room for professional colleagues and teachers’ PPA time.

What made The Learning Escape stand out from other providers?

The Learning Escape website is informative and we enjoyed looking at the different ways the modular buildings have been designed to meet different requirements. We requested a site visit and we were really impressed with the way the team understood our needs and desires and it took them no time to find the most suitable site for our building.

All of our questions were answered and we were given lots of additional information. The Learning Escape eco-classrooms provide much more flexibility in design than similar companies were able to offer. The timescale and budget of their modular buildings were far better than the previous brick built extension we had been considering.

What are the biggest benefits you’ve noticed for the pupils and your nursery?

The new building has given us the extra space we needed and the children love going outside to use it. It’s attached to the main school with a canopy, also designed and installed by The Learning Escape, and gives the impression of being a separate outdoor learning space.

We have divided the building into three spaces so that we can carry out different activities simultaneously and the classroom is being used and enjoyed by children, teachers and professional colleagues. This has made the eco-classroom even more flexible and it can be incorporated into all aspects of our school day. During the summer holidays we have had the area around the outdoor classroom landscaped so that now it is surrounding by a sensory garden. Now it really feels like a Learning Escape.

How did you find working with The Learning Escape overall?

The team at The Learning Escape were very efficient and reliable. The people working on the site were conscientious and worked really hard to ensure the building was completed within the agreed timescale. The children loved watching the creation of the building from start to finish.