The bell goes at Otumoetai Primary School and the children are itching to get out of their classrooms and on to the new playground.

While there'll be no race from four walls to the flying foxes this Labour Weekend, the playground will still be buzzing with laughter and concentration as children clamber over the rope stairs, ladders and balance on hanging obstacles.

Otumoetai deputy principal Zara McIndoe and students Sadie Machaj, Lara Sheedy, Maia Marsden and Sienna Pratt. Photo: Bruce Barnard.

But this is no ordinary playground; it's more of an obstacle course. In fact, Otumoetai Primary School principal Geoff Opie corrects us after calling their new addition a playground. 'We'll call it a challenge area,” says Geoff.

The new $140,000 challenge area replaces the 116-year-old historic classroom which was removed from school grounds to Historic Village last July.

The Ministry of Education decided the 1980s-built classroom should be removed from the school on Otumoetai Rd to allow for two new classrooms to cater for its expanding roll.

Geoff says the school has to adhere to a certain floor space and with the classroom still on site there was no room for new classes.

He says the removal of the classroom has given space to include the new challenge area and increase classrooms in the junior block.

'We have a focus on reading, writing and literature so to speak, and we don't wish to ignore the physical side of children's development in education. So we make a point of ensuring there are areas of physical challenge for the kids in the school.

'It's specifically designed for a physical challenge rather than just a playground. The kids are seeing it as a playground, but they're being physically challenged.”

Deputy principal Zara McIndoe says the new addition is more a challenge area than a playground as it can be used for fitness activities and physically extending the children.

'It's set up in a fitness circuit, and we've got a junior and senior area so the children can challenge themselves to get to that next level.”

The challenges include climbing ropes, balancing activities, flying foxes and differing height levels.

'The children can go up quite high to get to the next activity so they've got to have quite a bit of confidence in themselves physically to get to the next stage. You'll find that some children start off at a low level.

'It's really good for upper body strength as well. There's the flying foxes and monkey bars that they've got to build up their strength to be able to work their way along.”

Zara says the challenge area is well used during lunchtimes, before and after school, and at weekends.

'It's a real community play area and really popular, the children don't want to go home at the end of the day because they want to play on it.”

The total cost of the challenge area was fundraised through grants, PTA fundraisers and a contribution from the school's Board of Trustees.

'The challenge area has been our main focus for fundraising for the last couple of years to ensure it was a high quality area for the children.”