A safe place to play

Rowena Orejana observes how an innovative, tactile playground is warming up Wilson School students
The warm sun shines through the tree leaves  on to Brianna Townend's face. She can see droplets of water from where her teacher is splashing with her friend, Sam Coffey.
Brianna and Sam are severely and multiply disabled children. They are wheelchair-bound and cannot communicate. But now, their new playground provides a safe, stimulating
environment.
''It's so exciting to see that, to see the kids just enjoying the touch and the feel of water,'' says Jill Rice, the landscape architect who designed the playground.
''It's been an awesome, awesome process,'' says Wilson School principal Jan Kennington. ''Not one of our children can communicate. We talked to their teachers and therapists about what they needed.''
Indeed, Wilson School is now probably the envy of all special education schools in New Zealand. Its state-funded $7 million building won an architectural award.
Now the school offers an equally striking and thoughtfully designed playground, built to mirror the school building.
The playground has seven spaces, separated by gates, where children enjoy supervised play. There's an outdoor room and a multipurpose open space for bikes and balls. Then it flows through the patchwork courtyard's textured ground and the wall surfaces. The two-level rectangular basins, where water flows through, provide the focal point.
This has a meditative atmosphere, where greys and blues are the predominant colours among patches of green grass. It is a soothing, stimulating space for fragile children such as Brianna and Sam.
''It's mostly for time out, when a child needs some space,''  explains Mrs Rice.
For the school's more robust children, there's a large area for physical activity with typical playground equipment. This leads to a circular deck beneath the branches of trees where the children can experience nature.
The last, but certainly not the least, space is the swing room, equipped with a Liberty Wheel Chair Swing donated by Variety -The Children's Charity.  The swing is designed and engineered to hold a wheelchair safely. A ramp attached to it allows wheelchairs to be rolled up and secured easily.
Marilyn Glover, who heads Wilson School's board of trustees, was the driving force for funding the playground. ''It has been quite a journey to get where weare today. It began with realising the allocation for the construction of the new school would not cover the cost of the playgrounds,'' she says.
Sam's and Brianna's enjoyment is not easy to see, but is there in the hint of a smile. There is a warmth that spreads inside and it's not from the sun.
''They are safe,'' says Mrs Glover, ''that's the most important thing.'' 
 GROUNDS FOR CARING
The Wilson School is a state-run day school for disabled children. It has 70 students aged between five and 21 years with a wide range of physical, intellectual and sensory disabilities.
As well as Takapuna's Wilson School,  there are satellite classrooms at Windy Ridge Primary, Manuka Primary and Albany Junior High School.
"Out of the 70 students, 40 attend satellite schools,'' says Mrs Kennington. "We believe some of their needs would be better met if they are close to their non-disabled peers.'' 
The school hopes to establish a high school satellite.
"We have nowhere for our senior students to go. Sometimes they just go back to the base school.''