‘It’s put the joy levels up’: the flood-prone London school with a climate-adapted playground

T he play area at St John’s Church of England primary in Barnet, north London , used to flood so severely it was often unusable. “It would get so bad that the children couldn’t be dismissed from the playground,” says Maccie Dobbie, the school’s head teacher. “We had to dismiss them from different parts of the school or, literally, parents were stepping into puddles to lift their children out of the classroom.” Because the school sits in a basin with clay foundations, rain would pool on the grey tarmac and just sit there, often denying the children a proper break for play outside. Maccie Dobbie, head teacher at St John’s CofE primary. Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian But that started to change when one of the parent governors, Sarah Taggart, spearheaded St John’s climate action plan. “This school is in a high flood-risk area, so we were able to get [Department for Education] funding for a bigger project and take up some of the tarmac,” says Taggart, who enlisted the help of Trees for Cities , a charity whose work includes planting green spaces in urban playgrounds to assist their adaptation to the climate crisis. “You’re taking space away from the kids, but kids are kids, it’s got to be functional,” says Alfie Davies, a landscape architect at Trees for Cities who led the design work and consultation at St John’s. “They have to be able to use it or otherwise they won’t be interested or won’t want to look after it.” Sarah Taggart. …