Pasir Ris Secondary School Tampines Street 21 Singapore 529400
3 July 2008
Mr. Mah Bow Tan Ministry of National Develpoment Member of the Tampines GRC
Dear Mr. Mah
Re: FEEDBACK ABOUT THE PLAYGROUNDS IN TAMPINES
I am a student from Pasir Ris Secondary School. Recently, we did a project based on playgrounds so I am writing this letter to tell you the findings of my project and some of the feedbacks we have for the playgrounds in Tampines.
For our project, we were supposed to design a playground for the children with emotional scars. Before doing any other thing, we did a research on these children first; we did research on what causes children to have emotional scars, the special needs of these children and the ways we can help them when designing the playground. Through our research, we found out that a child who suffer from emotional scars is due to the abuse he or she had which emotionally affected him or her. Emotional abuse is defined as the systematic "tearing down" of another human being. It attacks the child's psyche & self-concept, the victim would come to the point where he or she sees themselves as unworthy of love & affection. For these children, they will really need as much care and love they can receive, the sense of security and also to be taught with values. Towards these needs, we design a colourful, close to nature and fairytale-liked structures of the playground to let them feel the warm of Mother Nature which can replace the love that they missed. Not only that we also design a corner within the playground where they can learn their values and this serves the playground as a outdoor classroom.
During the project, we visited some of the playgrounds in Tampines and we found out some common between the playgrounds. Currently, the design of the playgrounds are very similar; a slide, shelter where children climb up to have a view of the whole playground and some with swings. In my opinion, I find the playgrounds not attractive enough to let every children see it and want to go and the playgrounds also did not suit the needs of children with emotional scars. To improve the playgrounds, I think the playgrounds should have much special features such as irregular shape of a spiral slide or a castle-liked shelter for them to play in.
Even though it maybe very costly to rebuild these playground, I think that it is worth it as if you can see alot of children at the playground enjoying themselves and are playing as happy as a lark. It will be very touched to see them so happy. I hope that my feedbacks have help in designing the best playground for the children in Tampines. Thank you.
Yours Faithfully Neo Jie Min, a student of Pasir Ris Secondary School
