Schools & academies · Cornwall
School playground inspections
Termly inspections scheduled around teaching, with the summer visit doing the heavy lifting while the site is empty — so remedial work closes before the children come back.
School play equipment takes a pattern of use nothing else matches: several hundred children, twice a day, in concentrated bursts, on equipment that then sits untouched for six weeks in the summer. Wear arrives fast and in specific places — fixings, bearings, timber at ground line and the surfacing directly under the busiest units.
Schools also buy this on a different calendar from everyone else. So the programme runs to terms rather than to quarters, and the visit that matters most is the one at the start of the summer holiday, when there is still time to get remedial work done on an empty site.
What gets particular attention
- Timber trim trails probed at ground line, where rot starts out of sight
- Surfacing checked against critical fall height, not appearance — wear concentrates under the popular units
- Fixings and bearings on moving equipment, which loosen far faster under school-volume use
- Finger, head and neck entrapment on equipment modified or added to over the years
- Boundary fencing, gates and self-closers — safeguarding as much as safety
- Ancillary items: seating, shade structures, goals and storage inside the fence line
A termly programme
- Daily or weekly routine visual — in-house Your site team or caretaker checking for damage, glass and vandalism before children go out. We will train them on your specific equipment and set up a recording routine that stands as evidence.
- Operational each term — us The detailed inspection, scheduled outside teaching hours. Three visits a year lines up with how schools actually plan and budget, and catches wear before it becomes a closure.
- Annual main — independent Carried out by an independent Annual-grade RPII inspector, which is a separate registration we do not hold. We arrange it and invoice it within the same programme so the school keeps one contact.
Reports that go straight to file
Governors, multi-academy trusts and insurers all want the same thing: evidence that the duty of care was discharged by someone competent, on a documented schedule. Every report lists each item of equipment and surfacing, photographs and risk-rates each defect against the BS EN 1176 or 1177 clause, and gives a recommended action any contractor could price. It arrives within 48 hours, and anything high-risk is phoned through the same day rather than left in the paperwork.
Repairs in the holiday window
Because we repair as well as inspect, findings can be quoted and completed inside the same holiday window instead of waiting on a separate contractor. That includes equipment repairs to any manufacturer's kit and wetpour, resin-bound rubber and rubber mulch surfacing, which is usually the half of the report that decides whether fall protection still complies. The repair quote is itemised against each finding and carries no obligation.
Outdoor equipment only, across Cornwall and the Tamar border as far as Launceston, Saltash and Torpoint.
The three inspection tiers · Playground repairs · Ask for a quote
Questions
Frequently asked
Do you work outside teaching hours?
Yes. Inspections are scheduled outside teaching time or during the holidays, and the summer visit is timed so any remedial work can be completed and signed off before the new term starts.
Do you inspect indoor soft play?
No. We inspect outdoor equipment only. Indoor soft play falls under a different standard and a different competence, and we would rather say so than take the work.
Will the report satisfy our trust and our insurer?
It is written to be filed as-is. Every item is listed, every defect photographed and risk-rated with the BS EN clause cited, and the recommended action written plainly enough for a governors\u2019 meeting or a trust\u2019s estates team to act on without translation.
How long does a trim trail last?
It depends entirely on how it was installed and what the timber is doing at ground line. That is the first thing we probe, because rot starts below the surface where nothing shows — a trail that looks sound from three feet away can be structurally finished at the base.