Preschool and Nursery Playground Sets

The Little Dreams Series consists of 5 playground sets whose platform heights are deliberately kept low. Short slides, shallow-tread stairs, wide handgrips and enclosed side guards are its recurring components. Metalwork carries an electrostatic powder coating and timber surfaces a water-based paint finish.

The series exists because of one figure: drop height. A young child's grip strength, balance and instinct to break a fall differ from an older child's, so what matters at this age is not how rich the unit is but how low it stands. KD 06, the model whose dimensions appear in the catalogue, has a drop height of 1 m and a safety area of 35 m². Figures for the other models are supplied in writing at the survey stage.

Typical settings are nursery and kindergarten gardens, toddler play areas within residential developments, hospital and hotel children's corners, and the sections of neighbourhood parks set aside for younger users. What these share is a narrow band of user ages — 0–3 and 3–6 — and the models are configured around those two bands.

In siting, supervision is the governing rule here. Young children must stay in view, so the unit belongs in a position fully visible from where the carer or teacher sits, not in an enclosed corner. Models with fewer tall panels and enclosed tunnels have an advantage in this respect. The correct arrangement puts the bench just outside the safety area, facing the play area rather than inside it.

Plan around the safety area. The 35 m² to be set aside for KD 06 is markedly larger than the ground the unit occupies, and nothing may sit within it — no kerb, planter edge, tree trunk, bench or wall. In nursery gardens the unit is usually pushed against a wall, and that clearance is the first thing to go.

A low drop height does not remove the need for impact-absorbing surfacing; falls are frequent at this age. The covering must extend across the whole safety area rather than the ground under the structure alone. The low height does mean a thinner layer can be used, which brings the total cost of the series below that of large-scale sets. TS EN 1176 is the standard covering playground equipment of this type.

Enclosing the area is part of the plan in nursery and kindergarten gardens. Once the play zone has a defined boundary, children stay inside it, supervision becomes easier, and the unit's safety area is protected in practice. The enclosure belongs outside that safety area rather than at its edge; a unit placed too close to a fence turns the fence itself into a hazard in a fall.

Where a site serves both young and older children, placing a model from this series in its own zone works better than one large mixed-age structure; in an undivided area the fast, physical play of older children effectively pushes the youngest out. Installation requires a concrete foundation and anchoring, and maintenance amounts to a weekly visual check, monthly fixing checks and a seasonal surfacing review. Send us your dimensions and age range and we will identify a suitable model.