School PE Transformation Stories: How Outdoor Gyms Support Student Health and Wellbeing

3rd August 2026

According to the children’s commissioner for England’s analysis of NHS data, the number of young people being referred for mental health treatment has increased to over a million. This covers the year to March 2025, and represents around a tenth of all children. It’s also nearly double the number recorded in 2018-19. Commissioner Dame Rachel de Souza has gone as far as to say we’re ‘facing a crisis’ over youth mental health. 

Why School PE Matters for Student Mental Health

Physical education (PE) clearly has a key role to play in supporting young people’s mental and physical health, and in supporting them to be confident and resilient as they develop social skills. Yet, according to government informationpublished earlier this summer, less than half of youngsters get the hour’s daily exercise the government recommends, with girls, those with special educational needs and disabilities and from deprived backgrounds disproportionately affected. 

Indeed, by the end of primary school, the same figures continue, around a fifth are already living with obesity. 

Outdoor Gym Equipment for Schools and Academies

Having the right equipment, and using it in the right way, are obviously key to successful outcomes and to making the most of PE classes. And if you’re involved in running a school or its PE programme, you may not realise just how easy it is to incorporate an outdoor gym facility into classes – and give kids the benefit of working out in the fresh air at the same time. 

We’ve worked with a specialist to devise a six-week lesson planner for use alongside our gym equipment, including warm-up exercises, circuit training and more. (We’ll also help plan your school outdoor gym from start to finish, taking into account everything from location and positioning to surfacing as well as financing the project and making the best equipment choices.) 

At the same time, we always supply full training materials and support teachers in making the most of our outdoor exercise equipment. 

We’ve seen for ourselves the difference a well-used outdoor gym can make to young lives, especially when it comes to things like helping to bust exam stress.

Archbishop Lanfranc Academy Outdoor Gym Case Study

Fresh Air Fitness worked with Archbishop Lanfranc Academy, a senior school in Croydon, to create an outdoor, ultra-modern strength training facility in an underused part of the institution’s grounds. It’s now a hardwearing, accessible and inspiring exercise space, built in consultation with the school, which stressed the importance of strength training to this project, designed to give users a full-body workout. 

We cleared the overgrown site before adding an all-weather mulch surfacing. The resulting facility fits 30 students at any one time and incorporates key strength-training pieces, as well as our Big Rig product, the ultimate multi-use workout apparatus. 

Transform Your School PE Facilities with Fresh Air Fitness

We’re proud of what we’ve achieved at Archbishop Lanfranc, but it’s just one of 5,000 outdoor gyms we’ve installed across the UK. Our outdoor fitness gyms encourage all students, whatever their age, ability or fitness level, to get fit, remain active for life and build strength while supporting their overall physical and mental wellbeing. Children can work at their own pace, without fear of direct competition or judgement. 

We continue to work with numerous schools and could work with yours, too. We genuinely believe that, at a time of constrained educational budgets and soaring mental health problems among young people, the role of an outdoor gym in school grounds has never been more vital.