School takes delivery of 5 Outdoor Classroom Pods

Last year Castle Primary School in Northampton ordered one of our outdoor classroom pods to be used as an outdoor learning/library hub. The unique pod – with its distinctive features of a green round Hobbit style circular door and arched roof – was an immediate success with both teachers and children alike.

So much so that at the beginning of this year, the school ordered four more pods which were delivered last week and this time, all in different colours (purple, yellow, blue and red). They have been sited in different parts of the school grounds to allow for variety and they shall each be used for a different reason.

The outdoor classroom pods are pre-manufactured mobile units which are built entirely in the factory and are then delivered to the school on the back of a special transport truck. It is also now possible to get two pods onto one truck thereby saving on cost. At the school, they are then manoeuvred into position either by the use of a hi-ab crane or with a special fork lift truck. And for this particular job, we used a new ground screw foundation fixing system as all the pods were going onto grass and therefore needed some kind of base to sit upon. Each pod is therefore supported by 8 ground screws (each ground screw can support of a tonne of weight).

All four ground screw foundations were installed over half term within half a day. The pods were delivered the following week where we arrived at 9am and by 11am (in time for the first playground break time), we were gone with all four pods in position and ready to use. As you can imagine, the children were somewhat excited by this new development! So minimal disruption time for a school. To compare this to other methods, to put down a concrete base and allowing for cure times would take three days. To build a pod on site (as opposed to it being delivered pre-manufactured) would take another three days. Doing it this way, each pod with foundations takes just half a day on site.

There are other options in the range to have insulation and an electrics package which includes some double sockets, lights and a wall mounted heater for those schools wanting to use all year round at all times of day.

For further information, please contact the Hideout House Company on 01832 275902 or email: info@hideouthouse.com