St Monica School Naturescape

While it’s completely amazing, I’m not sure I know how to give an accurate description of the St Monica School Naturescape. It’s part natural playground, part junkyard playground, part mud kitchen and part creative chaos – but it all adds up to one of the most-fun places to play that we’ve ever found!

At the centre of the play area is a large smooth log structure, which includes a wide rope balance beam. It’s surrounded by tires, wooden stumps, plastic spools and even some old palates. This playground is also home to a sand pit, a music space, a chalkboard, a rope maze and a variety of other loose parts style playthings.

The girls spent a lot of time dragging around tires and log and creating a performance on and around the log. We played for over an hour and left with the girls begging to go back – which we definitely will soon!

The playground is based in woodchips, sand and grass. You may want to bring some chalk of your own, as we did, though we also found some pieces on site. There is a school garden on site – please be respectful and don’t pick things that belong to the school. (That goes for the playground too – please don’t remove the loose parts.) There is a sign on the gate that says everyone is welcome in this playspace, and another that asks for the gate to be re-latched when visitors leave.