UDK 711.01/.09

Kruszko А.

ROLE, FUNCTIONS AND USE OF WATER  IN SCHOOL GROUNDS

West Pomeranian University of Technology, Szczecin (Poland).

The school grounds play very important role in children development. Therefore, they should provide various, sustainable and attractive features, helping children in their physical, educational, social and emotional development.

Key words: The school, school landscape,   water, water elements, water features, environment,  pond, drainage.

Many European institutions for instance, the organizations participating in the development of school sites in Great Britain highlights the role of the school environment and its impact on physical, social and emotional development of students. Furthermore, the school is one of the main facilities used by the local community. It is also a public place, where children spend a large part of their childhood. Therefore,  the importance and successful design of  school grounds, as an environment where young people spend a significant part of  their life is crucial.

According to many  current British guidelines and publications, recommended and functionally diverse school landscape should include for instance items such as:

■  sport pitches with soft surfaces

■  sport pitches with hard surface

■ areas and landscape elements which  allow for formal and informal play  and recreation

■  seating elements allowing for resting and social gathering

■  features and landscaping areas providing educational benefits, which could be

used in the  National  Curriculum ( for instance in environmental education or science).

■   Native planting and environmental elements, habitat areas

The last two of the above positions play a vital role, for instance in raising the ecological values of the school grounds. As they have the potential to increase biodiversity, as well as to increase environmental and ecological awareness among young people [3, p. 5-59].

School sites  are often located in urban areas where the landscape is one of the few places that can offer easy and safe access to elements of the natural environment.

Many British publications  recommend the creation of habitat areas on a school sites - such as  planting of different types of vegetation, woodlands, wildflower meadows, or for instance  water features with the aquatic vegetation and marshland.  These elements can be very important teaching resources, because they can be used in the National curriculum. According to many publications it is a stimulating and valuable source of knowledge, valuable for instance in the environmental education and in science [5, p. 5-50].

One of these elements, which may be valuable source of education and at the same time can provide a significant environmental and aesthetic qualities into school landscape is water. Inclusion of water in the school landscape is particularly common in British schools, and this is a particularly attractive element for educational and aesthetic reasons. What is more, water is an extremely interesting landscape element, providing a number of benefits, stimulating for instance the sense of hearing and sight.  It is also a very dynamic component changing with the weather and the seasons.  Ponds, as well as other wetlands can also provide habitat areas for diverse plant and animal species, and help to increases the biodiversity. This applies both to schemes in rural landscapes as well as in urban areas [2, p. 28-33].

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