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Free Play Network NewsIssue No. 5, April - May 2004Contents
Free Play Network News is edited by Nicola Butler, Free Play Network Manager. We welcome contributions and comments from readers, so if you would like to suggest issues to cover or have comments on the articles included please let us know by emailing nbutler at equality.uk.com. East of the sun and west of the moonInformation from Helle Nebelong on a new accessible playground in Copenhagen Building owner: The City of Copenhagen
East of the sun and west of the moon - is the name of a new accessible playground located in the south-eastern part of Copenhagen. A Norwegian fairytale has inspired to the design of this new 4.000 square metre playground. The fairytale is about a prince, who has been transformed to a gigantic polar bear and a poor girl, who set out for a dangerous journey. She has to go through a lot of challenges, before she manages to save the prince. On her way she meets a lot of fantastic fairytale figures. There has been a close co-operation between the City of Copenhagen's professionals and brilliant craftsmen, who have transformed stones of granite and tree trunks into fairytale figures and unique play equipment. It is a public place for all children to come irrespective of age, rank, ability, disadvantages and competencies. From the beginning of the design process accessibility was given a high priority. There are winding paths up and down the hillocks. They have different degrees of slopes, which gives the children different challenges. If one can't get up and down the steepest path one must choose the slightly less steep path. The paths kerbs keeps wheelchair-users and the blind "on the right path". A path with obstacles There is a special path with different obstacles for the children to master. Here they can climb, crawl or jump from one obstacle to another and develop their gross motor skills. At the same time the path gives one many tactile experiences. The muscular system gets strengthened as do fine motor skills: catching, letting go, adjusting one's footing and experiencing different kind of surfaces. Experiences of different materials, different smells and colours gives identity to this special path. For disabled children, the obstacle path provides a challenge for them to crawl forward on their stomachs if their legs are paralysed to develop strenght in their arms.
Although the place is specially designed to meet the needs of disabled children, it gives challenges to children who are not disabled. The unique equipment has different functions and can be used in lots of different ways. The polar bear, the poor girl and the ugly princess with the long nose are amongst the many figures to be recognised in the playground. All the sculptures are there to be looked at, touched, climbed on or lifted upon or just to charm the children. The play equipment has been built with degrees of difficulty. It can be used by children and youngsters with different types of disability. There are many different sense experiences in the shape of pretty flowers beautiful plants and fantastic natural materials which one can see and touch. Everything has been built using good solid materials and used imaginatively by the artists. The Danish national committee for the disabled 2003 has supported the production of a leaflet, which was sent out to all the 270 counties in Denmark to inspire and encourage everyone to think about, how playgrounds in the future throughout Denmark can be accessible to every child. More photos (and more information in Danish) are available at: http://www.vejpark.kk.dk/publikationer/pdf/oestenforsolen.pdf. Registering Summer SchemesBy Sandra Melville, PLAYLINK Director Ofsted has asked us to remind people planning to run summer play schemes to apply in good time for checks on staff to be carried out by the Criminal Records Bureau and Social Services. Providers should let their Regional Centre know immediately that they intend to set up a holiday play scheme, whether funding is confirmed or not. This will allow the Centre to organise their work in order to process holiday play schemes quickly. As soon as they can, providers should follow up with a completed application form, making clear that it is for a holiday scheme, since the work of processing an application cannot begin until the form has been received. We are told that Regional Centres understand the urgency of registering holiday playschemes, and are preparing their work plans in order to ensure resources are in place to meet demand. CRB checks are much improved and are now usually processed within 3 weeks. Ofsted will not normally require checks for staff where it can be shown they have been checked within the last three years, so staff employed last summer by providers running holiday playschemes should not need to have checks repeated. However, there may be individual circumstances where Ofsted, or the registered person themselves, wants the employee to be re-checked. The contact information for Regional Offices is available at http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/childcare (click on the relevant part of the map in the Local Regions box). An initial telephone query should be to the London helpline on 0845 601 4771. If they can't help, they will refer on to the appropriate Regional Centre. Play in HullBy Sandra Melville Over the last few months, PLAYLINK has been working with local officers to develop a play policy and strategic objectives for Hull City Council. The plan is to move to implementation as soon as the policy has been endorsed by Cabinet. This successful first phase of the work to improve play opportunities for the City's children was celebrated by the Hull Creative Play Network with a well attended and lively conference held on an April Saturday. The Free Play Network was delighted to be able to sponsor the event and make contact with 120 people actively engaged in work with children. 7th PLAYLINK / Portsmouth ConferenceWhose Learning is it: Creating Environments for ChildrenBy Sandra Melville The aim of PLAYLINK/Portsmounth conferences has always been to create opportunities for the exchange of ideas between those involved in play and those with different areas of expertise that could contribute to thinking creatively about how we provide for children's play. The impetus for this year's conference, held in March with the title 'Whose Learning Is It', was concern about play in the context of schools. There were theoretical and research based presentations on: what makes for a good learning environment for children; the Swedish approach to education, play and learning; how to identify what children want from their play environments. And there were practical sessions with a case study on the transformation of the playground at the Daubeney School in the London Borough of Hackney and work with schools to transform children's experience of playtime. Materials from these presentations is now posted at: http://www.freeplaynetwork.org.uk/new/pcc01.htm. An innovation this year was to seat delegates at round tables providing comfortable space to lay out papers and rest a cup of coffee. It certainly encouraged a highly engaged set of discussions in the afternoon, each led by someone with practical experience of working with schools on play and breaktime, identified by contacts made through the Free Play Network. Thee are several national organisations with a strategic interest in the development of a better understanding of play and learning in school settings. Following on the conference, PLAYLINK is convening a group to look at how this work can be co-ordinated and promoted. We would also be glad to facilitate contact for Network members who would be interested in talking to those membrs currently carrying out play projects with schools. Public Space ManifestoBy Sandra Melville 'Many playgrounds are now so dull that children reject them in favour of more exciting and potentially dangerous places.' 'We...will encourage people to make decisions that give more weight to the benefits of interesting spaces than to the perceived risks.' These statements come from the new, 10-point Manifesto for Better Public Spaces published by CABE Space. This recently established unit at the Commission for the Built Environment is charged with developing and implementing the Government's policy in relation to green and other public space. The Manifesto clearly indicates their understanding of the needs and wishes of children for a variety of play opportunities in public spaces. PLAYLINK was involved in the consultation to develop the Manifesto and has signed up to it. We would encourage members of the Free Play Network to do the same. Visit http://www.itsyourspace.org.uk where you can also get information on funding for transforming public spaces. The 51 Minute ChallengeBy Nicola Butler The '51 Minute Challenge' conference, organised by the National Youth Agency, along with The Children's Play Council, Groundwork UK and the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE), was designed to look at the 51 minutes (on average) of every waking hour that children spend out of school and to look at solutions to provide children and young people with opportunities to play, socialise and develop. The conference included presentations from Danish landscape architect Helle Nebelong (see East of the sun and west of the moon, above, and other material on design posted on http://www.freeplaynetwork.org.uk/design) and Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Yvette Cooper, along with a range of workshops including how to address intergenerational conflict, opportunities for extended schools, and consulting with children and young people. Further information on initiatives covered in the conference are available from: Playwork PrinciplesBy Sandra Melville The first phase of consultation on the important review of the playwork 'Assumptions and Values', now being referred to as the playwork 'Principles', has ended. The review is being conducted by Play Wales and PLAYLINK has given its support to the process. Comments from playworkers on an initial consultants' draft have gone to a group of principals with a variety of experience in play and playwork. Following their amendments, the document setting out the Principles will be available for wider comment. Because of the strategic importance of this piece of work, we have written to the Play Wales Director setting out our position at this stage and indicating that we expect to respond to the second consultation. You can view the text of the letter on the Free Play Network website. Further information about the Play Wales consultation is available at: http://www.playwales.org.uk/values. On the benefits of self-buildIn the last edition of Free Play Network News, we published a letter from Robin Sutcliffe of Sutcliffe Play arguing for the benefits of including manufactured fixed equipment in adventure playgrounds. We received the following two responses from Ted Keen, an adventure play worker in Sheffield, and Simon Rix of Haringey Play Association. "Thanks for publishing Robin Sutcliffe's thoughts on fixed equipment. "The fact that children are not able to alter fixed equipment is one of the crucial issues here. While it could be argued that sufficient loose parts will empower children to adapt their environment, it's not at all the same "Additionally, playworkers who have their equipment bought in and have not been involved in the construction are A. precious about the equipment and won't allow children to "damage" it and B. don't know how to fix it when it goes wrong. There's also the question of concrete foundations and their build up. Either they are removed at huge expense or the whole site becomes concrete and you can't dig/build on it at all. "The question of the play value of formulaic and it could be said staid designs and whether they answer the play needs of children is very pertinent, especially as timber is hard to get for free now and a structure may stand for a long time before it's adapted. "I think that the answer is to go back to the experts - the children. Hackney and Haringey play associations have been conducting some very successful design and build projects which have aimed to put the children back into the driving seat. We've undertaken some long consultations which empower children to make informed choices about play environments, going to visit places and criticising them and then going on to criticise their adventure playground. One playground had a major piece rechristened the 'boring platform' during one of these projects, illustrating Robin's point. "The most recent of these projects resulted in a build of extraordinary vision and far reaching consequences. The architect, an eleven year old girl, had come up with the concept and had promoted it to the other children on the site as answering their play requirements, so it was voted for. The architect came every evening after school and put on her hard hat to carry out her inspection and ask her questions. Afterwards she issued us with an architect's certificate. "It was an odd looking thing, the structure, mainly traditionally built with a couple of techniques pinched from skate park builders, and the children not only play on it, but own it because they were involved from conception to construction and use." And, on the relative positions of playwork in respect of hitting your thumb with a hammer "... Hammering nails is a primeval occupation. The urge to strike one object against another goes back to our prehuman history when our ancestors survived through achieving the skill of extracting bone marrow from carcasses which other creatures couldn't get hold of It's great to see your nail disappearing into the timber and this is a clue to why you're doing it. A small child will hammer a nail into anything and will carry on hammering as long as there are nails. Later the child may make patterns with nails, finally they'll hammer to join pieces of wood together - the journey from experiential to formative thinking and a door to cause and effect. "To build shelters, to construct, to affect the world around you are needs of children that most people, playworker or not will recognise, but why do these needs mean that playworkers should build their own structures? "Self build structures say 'this place is different from other places because we make it and change it when we want to'. That's an important message to the child entering a play setting because it is permissional. Seeing and working with playworkers who are changing the play environment gives the child confidence to do and to ask to be facilitated to do. The danger of the play environment becoming too precious and staid is avoided because the equipment isn't being 'spoiled' by change and the finishes etc won't be scarred by the odd nail. "Then there are the materials. On a self build site it is likely that there will be spare timber around and the tools to work with it, these tools including playworkers who have the experience and confidence to allow and support the children in their construction endeavours. "From the point of view of running a site, self build has a lot of distinct advantages. The playworker who has built their own structures knows and understands them and will be able to repair them or adapt them to accommodate an unforeseen hazard. They are more likely to make effective risk assessments, identify mitigations to high risks and carry them out. There's an advantage here because the site will have fewer hazards on it, the hazards are more likely to be recognised and remedied quickly and cheaply. If the structures have been built properly, then they will not have concrete foundations, allowing them to be removed easily and new ones made and set in without having to break out a load of cement. This will be quicker and cheaper. Don't forget that a site carpenter can earn £200 a day. If a playworker can lay claim to those skills then why are playworkers on £7.00 or under an hour? "The children have a right to be consulted and involved in matters that affect them. We should take this as particularly important in respect of play because we understand what play is doing for children and are champions of the right to play. A properly conducted design and build consultation will hand control of the play environment over to its users by giving them the tools and the opportunity to discover what is possible, decide what they prefer and criticise what they have. The children who renamed a large the 'boring platform' during a consultation, illustrate how lack of consultation can miss the goal. This is not to say that children can't be consulted, as they should be, on off the shelf purchases but the design process of a self build can give much more opportunity to dream and to pick and mix ideas which will fit into the space or landscape available. I think that the overall results are increased play opportunities and increased ownership of the play environment, as well as developing the childrens skills to criticise, analyse, design and negotiate. "These arguments are not applicable in all circumstances, of course. There are plenty of situations where self build is inappropriate - where there's nobody to look after it, where there's poor security and the site can't be closed at night etc. But, where there is the chance to self build, I think that it makes the job of playwork more fulfilling and the service offered to the children more effective. 'Christmas Present Playground' "I was called out the other day to view a new 'Adventure Playground' in Sheffield. "Well nearly as exciting, the ski village are building an adventurous playground and wanted someone to assist in the risk assessment. "Forty foot structures, climbing walls, absolutely massive pipe slides and an Ariel runway. All very exciting and made of enough wood to wear out a woodpeckers beak. "Entry Fee three pounds fifty a session of three hours with rangers to supervise it alongside the parents who are admitted free of charge to help supervise. "With birthday parties on site, in attractive wooden chalets, at charges that will be great value to some parents. I can see a lot of children using it. "I do have to look cynically at the three hour session with the escape clause that parents are allowed in free. This is where the whole thing wanders into the realm of what I call "fixed playground syndrome". We all know that children, these days are usually accompanied by their parents when visiting park playgrounds. We also all know that there is very little to support the parents staying on most such sites for more than a few minutes. No tea, toilets, seating etc. So although the playground is there all the time, the children are most definitely not. "Throw in the odd bruise and torn clothing and the three hour session will definitely have a thirty minute feel! "This playground, like many others borrows the idea of wooden adventurous structures from what we call adventure playgrounds. Their structures however are the equivalent of the Christmas present - akin to the train set chosen by Dad, must be treated with care, cost a packet, only runs on its track, must be carefully handled and only played with when a parent has the time/patience to get it out and put it away again. Thus providing years of residual play value! "Unlike the big outer cardboard box that the train set came in. This has little value to adults, so belongs to the child, it can be cut, coloured, manipulated and used with a child's imagination, little negative adult intervention and is therefore packed with actual play value. Much like a self build adventure playground as we know it. "Which play worker, wanting to keep his/her job, is going to take a hammer saw or even a tin of paint to a Christmas present structure with only the excuse that the children wanted to change it? Put on your child's eyes glasses on and ask yourself if you would really prefer a Christmas present playground"? If you have a view on the value of self-build or fixed equipment in adventure playgrounds please let us know by emailing: nbutler at equality.uk.com. |
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