Our Story

Currently, our school is home to 625 students, with only 90 children being able to use the playground equipment at a given time, due to safety concerns. Additionally, our school has been forced to create a separate recess time for those with disabilities to use the playground equipment, in accordance with their ability. As you can imagine, this creates an atmosphere of separation based on ability, which leads to a decrease in mental health amongst our children, their parents and caregivers. Our goal is to have a new, inclusive playground built for August 2026. This new playground will encourage more active play in our students of all abilities, as well as all members of the community, so anyone can come and play!

Along with increasing the number of students who can play at one time, the new playground will have a focus on inclusion. The playground design selected will enable those with mobility impairments to be able to use their abilities to play alongside their peers, to aid those with visual impairments to play safely, and includes equipment designed to help with calming for children who may be overstimulated, such as those with autism or other sensory processing disorders.

In order to incorporate the necessary features to make our playground inclusive, and given the size of our playground footprint, the cost of the playground is quite significant - an estimated $650,000. As a school community, we are responsible for raising the entirety of this amount ourselves. Our current playground is set to be demolished in 2027 due to its age. If we are unable to raise the money to replace it, our school and community at large will be left without one. Due to this urgency, please consider donating to give all the children of Coventry Hills a vital part of childhood.