Competition winners have their Shade Sail installed

Clare Community Primary School, Clare in Suffolk was announced as the lucky winner of the Able Shade Sail Competition.

The prize was a commercial grade shade sail, designed and installed by Able Canopies, with a value of £4,000. A shade sail gives high UV protection from the sun and is also shower and hail resistant to give additional cover from the weather. The cloth is made using the very latest knitting technology which produces a superb quality lock-stitched material. The head teacher of Clare Community Primary School, Mrs Joan Horner, was informed of the schools prize by telephone, however despite several initial spirited attempts by the director of Able Canopies, Mr Mark Wood, to congratulate her, seemed amusingly convinced the prize offering was a typical telesales call. Finally she was won over and became understandably elated by the news.

Mrs Horner said “We didn’t believe at first that we had won. Initially my secretary refused to put Mr Wood through to me. It is funny to look back now and to think we almost said no to an amazing prize”.

Able Canopies asked the school to pick the colour of the shade sail cloth that they wanted, ideally to suit the school and its surroundings. After much consideration they chose a lime green coloured cloth, which matched some colours they already had at the school.

The installation of the canopy took place on 19th May and 23rd June 2008 in a two stage process. Mrs Horner said that after stage one of the installation, when the shade sail posts were put into the ground, the children kept asking what the posts were for. “I showed them pictures of other shade sails that Able Canopies had put up, but they were still a little unsure of what it would look like once finished”.

Able Canopies team of fitters installed the shade sail during the schools term-time and school opening hours. “At Clare Community Primary School it is our priority to make the children safe especially when building work is going on” stated Mrs Horner. “However with Able Canopies, it was clear that health and safety was their top priority with careful consideration of the children. The fitters were happy to have the children as an audience when working and happy to answer their questions, even if they were asked the same thing 140 times by different children”.

The shade sail was erected in the school’s ‘quiet zone’. This is an area in the school playground which is sectioned off with wooden fencing and has picnic benches within, which gives the children an opportunity to play quiet games or to just sit and read. The shade sail covers almost half of the ‘quiet zone’ measuring 25 square metres which provides the children sitting underneath with 96% protection from the sun’s harmful UV rays.

Mrs Horner said “We are delighted to have won an Able Shade, it looks very attractive in the school playground and we love the colour of it. It really suits the schools surroundings and the children think the shade sail is just wonderful”.