On the surface of school sports

By Heather Barker Vermeer

Industry Reporter Stellar sports grounds provide many benefi ts to schools.

A quality playing surface can bolster reputations by boosting the calibre of athletes you can att ract, staff morale, student participation and community engagement, as well as visual appeal in photography and school branding. Reputation aside, there are health and safety benefi ts to properly maintaining and upgrading school sports surfaces and it can also diversify the types of activities that can be played on the ground. Whether your current priority is a pristine cricket wicket, an international standard hockey turf, a state-of-the-art squash court or an all-weather athletics track, there is a tried and tested process to achieving the results you want for your school, to ensure you don’t slip up. Options include, but are not limited to, all-weather artifi cial turf, synthetic multi-sports courts, sand-based fi elds with hybrid turf reinforcement, or hard-wearing acrylic court surfaces. A major trend in New Zealand recently has been synthetic multi-sport courts, which remove the weatherdependency of what can be wet, muddy winter sports fi elds and enable a variety of sports to be played year-round. Increasingly, these are brightly coloured and marked for many sports, with bold design in primary colours intended to act as a magnet to young minds. Many primary and intermediate schools choose not only to add netball, basketball, hockey, and tennis markings, but incorporate additional features such as hopscotch, four square and tapu ae, sometimes known as tapuwai and tapuwae, or one of many other kī (ball) game variations for maximum benefi t from their multi-use sports surface. Your cost analysis will determine how bold you can be, and the following components should be considered: construction, maintenance, renewal, decommissioning, and cost per hour of use. It can be wise to go on site visits to sports fi elds in your area yourself, prior to engaging a consultant, and ask questions of those responsible not only the decision-making but the upkeep of facilities. Benefi t from the learnings of others and ascertain what you personally, and as a school, believe to be good practice in this fi eld. Maintenance should be planned as part of the project and being pro-active in this can save money and time lost due to surface degradation. When a new synthetic surface is installed, moss and algae are not an issue. Over time, however, surfaces become aff ected by natural waste such as twigs, leaves and soil, and by litt er and spillages. This can enable algae and moss to grow. Scheduled maintenance will keep your surface at the standard it should be aesthetically, and for optimum safety and playability.

Image courtesy of PlaytopNZ

Industry Insights

Andy McDonald from PlaytopNZ advised that “wet poured rubber is a brilliant solution for new and existing concrete and asphalt courts”. Explaining what the process entails when resurfacing a school court with wet poured rubber, Andy said: “Older courts oft en become uneven, or trip hazards will have developed over time where there has been movement. An upgrade simply involves removing the raised areas and laying the new wet poured surface straight over it. Aesthetically, what we can achieve with wet poured rubber when it comes to sports markings and design takes these courts to the next level with line markings integrally installed. The lines being integrally installed means they won't wear off like paint will and look shabby over time, so maintenance is also very minimal. “The seamless rubber off ers impact absorption and is also anti-slip so off ers great injury reduction during play and it does not seem to reduce or increase ball bounce at all.”

Further, “Because the line markings are permanent, you only want markings that will be relevant for many years to come; think long term when selecting colours! Bright and exciting colours are fun but sometimes the slightly muted colours make for a calmer play space. The more soothing, coolertoned colours are also oft en preferred by schools considering students with sensory disabilities and challenges.” Telling us about a recent installation carried out at Rolleston School, Andy added that it was designed by Braydon Narbey at Morgan Pollard Landscape Architects: “I think using a professional or someone with design skills in the initial planning phase defi nitely pays off , and most schools are restricted by budget so it's important to get a price indication before engaging a professional architect.” He explained this also helps the school fi nd out whether what they want is achievable. “Rolleston School also opted to collaborate on a sustainable blend containing used sports shoe materials. Now their court contains thousands of pairs of used sports shoes, which is prett y awesome and sets a fantastic example to the children in making more sustainable choices where you can.”