Outdoor facilities at Hermsdorf primary school More space, play, nature and movement for the moving primary school Hermsdorf

The schoolyard of the Hermsdorf elementary school with after-school care and preschool offers after the conversion a multi-layered play and movement landscape, which promotes motor skills, creative play, community experience and nature experience of the children.

In 2020, the redesigned school grounds were awarded a prize as the state winner in the Saxon School Garden Competition.

Despite its size of almost 10,000 m², the children on the Hermsdorf school grounds often used to get in each other's way - running paths crossed each other, rolling chippings on concrete surfaces led to accidents, noisy after-school play and quiet lessons interfered with each other. Numerous fences separated the after-school care area, the playground and the preschool garden and could therefore not be used together.

All fences inside were removed and the entire play areas are now accessible to all user groups. The nevertheless necessary demarcation of areas for movement break, after-school activity and preschool playroom is achieved by a functionally clear bundling of the play offers and recreation areas.

Costs and resources were saved by mindful use of existing materials and equipment: existing play equipment such as swings, basketball baskets, balance beams, spinning tops or even concrete surfaces were left in place and sensibly integrated into the new facility. All excavated material was used as installation material under the new climbing hill and the natural play landscape "Mountain and Valley" at the sports field. This saves not only disposal costs, but offers as playable hill landscape the children of the "moved primary school" special motoric incentives.

Characteristic for the planning was an intensive participation of the school community in the reorganization of the functions, the planning and the building. The school's very committed booster club lent a hand in several weekend construction campaigns and implemented supplementary projects - redesign of the school garden, construction of an after-school meeting place and nature play areas - in their own efforts.