Three-year funding push has students celebrating as Waroona school enjoys new funky monkey playground

For the past three years, parents of a Peel primary school have hosted events, organised fundraisers, and worked together to land their students a phenomenal new playground. The Parents and Friends committee of Waroona’s St Joseph’s School celebrated this term after funding a new funky monkey bar playground, giving the students a new place to play and learn. P&F member Camille Leslie said she spent more than three years helping raise funds through community bingo nights, doughnut drives and tea towel fundraisers to give back to the school. “It feels amazing and this is so good for the kids,” she said. “I feel like it’s so good for the whole school community to be able to see — we decided let’s look at doing something and we got it done.” Mrs Leslie said the P&F group had also raised funds to have the school repainted and were now turning their attention to having shade installed above the new play equipment. “Everyone on the committee wanted to put the money we raised on to something big that the kids could see and enjoy,” she said. “Hopefully, we’ll get more parents, and new parents to go ‘oh my gosh, that’s what the P&F has done for our kids that go to school,’ and encourage more people to come and join.” St Joseph’s principal Ronan Kelly said the new playground would promote positive interaction between students. “There’s a lot of fun that they can have playing imaginative games themselves. There a lot of really good upper body movements they get from it that helps them develop their strength,” he said. “It’s not just a play thing, you can see our pre-primary class out here, and teachers are here helping the kids, building their core strength and taking little risks that help build their confidence.” Because of the new playground’s popularity, a roster has been created to manage the influx of excited kids. “They’ve love it. They’re rapt all really enjoying playing on it, it’s been busy every single day,” Mr Kelly said. “As a principal, I want to say how grateful I am for the parents who have done all the hard work to make this a reality.”