Newtongrange Primary School Parent Council call for equality with other Midlothian schools.

Our playground urgently needs an upgrade.

Our school is a great community with wonderful teachers and support staff, however, the facilities available do not match the staff’s passion and dedication. Our children deserve a better place to play and learn in.

In 2025 Newtongrange Primary School will be 100 years old and in that time the playground has deteriorated and no longer meets the standards and needs of a modern school. 

The playground is essentially a hard tarmac surface and is not stimulating, engaging, fun or inclusive for the approximately 450 children and staff who use the playground every school day, and our popular After School Club who use it all year round.

The playground railings create a hazard for our children with rusty fragments and flaking paint. There is a large disparity between the Newtongrange playground and many other Midlothian Primary School playgrounds. While ours lacks basic facilities like shelter or play equipment many others feature engaging spaces and accessible play zones to enhance learning experiences. Newtongrange Primary School is the ONLY playground in a Midlothian school without any formal play structures. We believe all Midlothian school children should have equality in education facility provision and are asking for this to be rectified.

Overall, despite of the best efforts of the school staff, the site looks very tired and neglected. Whilst Midlothian Council has recognised the need to refurbish the school as a whole, it makes no mention of the playground and no timescale has yet been offered for this.

The Parent Council would love to see some of the following improvements to bring our school up to the same standards as other local schools;

•    We ask for the school railings to be repaired and repainted.
•    We ask for some colourful or creative stencil decoration/ designs on the existing tarmac surface to allow the children to play imaginative games.
• We would like to see an astro-turf or softer rubber type surface installed in a small section to avoid injuries when the children are playing football on tarmac.
• We would like to see some larger engaging and inclusive play equipment installed, such as a Trim Trail, surface domes, play house, climbing wall, balance obstacles or similar. (A Trim Trail is a children's obstacle course consisting of different pieces of equipment that form a series of active and fun challenges.)
• We would like to see an outside classroom  area created for outdoor learning opportunities. 

Newtongrange Parent Council is calling for an urgent plan to transform the playground facilities and to improve safety, accessibility, outdoor learning and play opportunities.

The Parent Council has successfully launched a Crowdfunding page which has raised over £700 towards improvements to our playground but more significant investment by Midlothian Council is needed to make a real difference.

*We thank Cllr Kelly Drummond for contributing some of her own Environment Funds in 2023 towards some new play items and benches, which have made an immediate positive improvement.* We also thank the Council for the recent work to resurface the tarmac. However, serious investment in the provisions and surroundings by the Council is needed.

Our P1-P3 space:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our P4-P7 space:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our railings

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Examples of other primary schools in Midlothian:

Burnbrae Primary:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kings Park Primary

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Saltersgate

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please join us by signing and sharing our petition and asking the council to address some of the issues with our playground. Thank you for your support.

Newtongrange Primary School Parent Council