The Alpine School has a new, specially designed playground for its kindergarten students.

The Cooma Steiner school has steadily grown since it opened in 2019. Now offering kindergarten to year 11, with year 12 available from next year, the school currently has around 90 students. Around 10 of those students are in kindergarten.

It is a Steiner principle to have a separate play space for early learners. The playground is constructed of mainly natural materials and includes textured paths, rain-fed water tank for a creek bed, sand pit, mud kitchen, small bridge, row boat, grassy hill, tunnel cave, granite rocks, hammock, timber fort, climbing wall and a slide. The construction of this kindergarten playground has been in planning for years, and the staff and students are excited to have the project completed.

Education manager, Eric Hopf, thanked the workers involved, the board and the teachers for their efforts .

“I know it has been an agonising wait for the teachers and especially the students for the playground to be ready,” Mr Hopf said.

“I would like to thank the board for using significant resources to invest in this playground.”

Kindergarten teacher, Myolene Mesley, said the design of the playground was made with specific intentions.

“A key design priority was to ensure that each feature encourages open-ended exploration and enables the imaginative play that sits at the heart of a Steiner kindergarten,” Ms Mesley said.

“Giving young children the time and space to bring to life their creative forces awakens and fuels their capacity to visualise, problem solve and see the outer world through a joyful lens. There will be no end to the colourful adventures and inspired inner creativity that will be exercised in this beautiful space over the coming years.

“The other priority in the design of the play space was to ensure the expansive provision of opportunity for movement. In the early years, neurological input via movement is crucial for sensory-motor development and integration.

“In this yard, they will stimulate their vestibular (balance) systems by rolling, hanging and swinging. While climbing the ropes as ship captain or jungle swinging adventurer they will be building core strength and muscle tone. While feeling the various textures against their feet and cooking feasts in the mud kitchen their sense will be regulated, nurtured and enlivened.”

Ms Mesley says play is so important for younger children, and allowing them the freedom to move helps with learning.

“A wide range of current research has determined that good balance, spatial awareness, strong visual and auditory processing skills, core strength, well-regulated muscle tone and efficient sensory processing are some of the developmental requirements that allow children to concentrate well and learn with ease,” Ms Mesley said.

Our kindergarten playground was inspired by this intention - that through joy, creativity and movement they prepare their bodies and minds for the formal learning that lays ahead,” Ms Mesley said.

“We are so grateful to landscape constructioners Nick Salzke and Dan Newby. They are the creative genius behind our Kindergarten wonderland. Also George Magoulias of New Age Concreting for his beautiful work.”