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How Children can Stay Safe Outside in Cold Weather

How Children can Stay Safe Outside in Cold Weather

As the cold weather approaches, children are more likely to have accidents outside. This is especially true when the real winter weather starts and the ground becomes slippery with ice.

While the odd trips and falls will happen, there is still the need to minimise the number of times that they happen, and keeping safe outside is the responsibility of everyone. Here are some ways that your school can keep children safe outside.

  1. School Canopy

One of the best options is to use a school canopy near doors and across large areas of play space. School canopies help to keep the area dry and warmer. Therefore, ice can’t form on the ground, minimising the risk that children can slip.

School canopies can be particularly important around entrances and exits where people naturally slip more as they move from one surface to another and fail to adjust to the new walking surface.

  1. Limit Some Games

There are going to be games that children are going to want to play but are too much of a risk during the winter months. For instance, those looking to play football on a school playground could be at risk of more falls. Playing the sport on a field or a game like catch on the field is going to be much safer as the surface has less slip on it.

Therefore, set zones where children can play certain games that might be a higher risk on the playground.

  1. Reduce Numbers

Another problem is that during the winter schools tend to contract the play space. School fields are often not used during the winter for lunches and breaks. There are numerous reasons for this but that does mean that students are concentrated in a smaller area.

The high concentration of students, coupled with energetic games, often means that there is a greater chance of students bumping into each other. There are numerous ways to resolve this including staggering break times/lunches, offering more space, offering more clubs, etc.

Conclusion

Wintertime is a wonderful time of the year, but trips and falls are commonplace on the school playground. Above are some of the ways that your school can reduce the number of accidents that happen to keep children happy and safe while playing outside.

Able Canopies Ltd. design, manufacture and install canopies and shade structures at schools, nurseries and educational settings to enable year-round Free Flow Outdoor Play and Outdoor Learning.
For more information please contact us

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