We worked with Great Crosby Primary School in 2025, and following the success of that project they asked us back to develop two additional areas within their reception and nursery spaces.
The first area was designed to promote active play while fitting neatly into the designated space around the existing mound. This proved to be the ideal location for our popular Clamberstack Midi with deck, rock traverse, and steps (this product is usually fitted with a HDPE slide, but through requirements we swapped this out for steps).To complete the space, we resurfaced the area with resin bonded mulch, creating a durable, safe surface that also blends beautifully with the natural surroundings.
The Clamberstack Midi with platform is specifically designed to encourage physical development, featuring large timber logs that children can climb across to build coordination and balance. Integrated ropes allow pupils to stretch, steady themselves, and challenge their movement skills, while the rock traverse and stepped access to the platform offer further opportunities to develop strength, confidence, and agility through play.
In a separate area of the school, the focus was on enhancing a used space where children regularly engaged in bucket play and messy activities, leading the school to express interest in one of our mud kitchens. We proposed our Mud Kitchen 4 with a number of bespoke adaptations to suit the site, as the installation could not exceed a specific height because of neighbouring boundaries. Because we manufacture our equipment in-house, we were able to lower the roof to a height still perfectly suited for reception age children, widen the structure to span the available space, and incorporate a small chalkboard for mark making as an added creative feature. Beneath the mud kitchen, we installed flag paving to create a solid, durable surface, ensuring that even in wet or muddy conditions the area remains practical and safe so outdoor messy play can continue all year round.
Mud play offers a wide range of valuable developmental benefits for young children, supporting both physical and cognitive growth through hands on exploration. Using a mud kitchen encourages imaginative role play as children create recipes, take on different roles, and interact with their peers, helping to build communication skills, cooperation, and confidence. Scooping, pouring, mixing, and transferring materials also strengthens fine and gross motor skills, hand eye coordination, and spatial awareness, while exposure to natural materials promotes sensory development and curiosity about the world around them. Through experimenting with textures, quantities, and cause and effect, children naturally develop early problem solving and mathematical concepts, making mud kitchen play a rich and engaging way to learn through outdoor experience.
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