ARKLOW CBS recently put the finishing touches to its revitalisation of the dilapidated South Green Playground.
Last year they teamed up with Arklow Tidy Towns for some Transition Year projects with their Geography class. This year, their joint initiative was to brighten this dull, overgrown playground to make it somehwhere local people looked forward to visiting.
It has been a resounding success.
Geography teacher Andreina Kinsella said: “First we removed all of the grafittii, with some panels taking one student three hours to remove. “We weeded, removed the litter and painted the picnic bench and swing set.
“The Tidy Towns then started to make planters and fencing.
“On our second visit we planted up the planters, dug up a flower bed and planted plants, then swept the playground and planted wildflowers around the trees.”
Their final job was to create a mural. Five artists from the TY class took part. The skteched out ideas on a whiteboard, then painted them on three large boards.
The theme they picked was of a river flowing through the boards from mountain to sea.
It took the students a month to paint then varnish, guideding by art teacher Maria Charlton and assisted by caretaker Anthony Doyle.
As a bonus, woodwork teacher Donal Regan made some bird boxes with the students to install in the playground.
Ms Kinsella added: “Adrian Cadden (Arklow Tidy Towns) put up everything for us. He was there at every part of the project, as was Sandra Duffy (Arklow Tidy Towns), and they were invaluable. The amount of preparation they did for us before we arrived each day was huge.
“We tidied up the playground again before Councillor Miriam Murphy arrived to showcase the playground to her.
“Arklow Municipal District has secured significant funding for two new inclusive pieces of play equipment to be installed in the near future.
“The playground has been full of children the last week.”