Out of sight – not out of mind
Guest post – Ashley Rogers, Play England, coordinator for the Play Safety Forum
Playing outside might be dangerous – it sometimes seems crime and anti-social behaviour is rife and around every corner. All the more reason then to keep children indoors and safely out of harms way…
Besides what life lessons will be learnt from climbing a tree and experiencing that terrifying moment when you are not entirely sure you can get down again? What good can it be to anyone to build your first ever fire in the woods and dance crazily around it singing ‘I’m a fire-starter!’? What could you possibly enjoy about taking a ginormous run up and launching yourself head first into and across a muddy puddle down the park in the sheeting rain?
Yes, children are the most precious beings in our world. Yes, they might get into to more dangerous situations if they are out of the eyes of adults and allowed to wander past the end of their gardens. Yes, parents will worry. But, consider this…the world is not actually a more dangerous place than it was 30 years ago when you or your parents were playing out. The Home Office statistics that show this are documented in Tim Gill’s book, ‘No Fear – Growing up in a risk averse society’.
In many cases, it is our perception – and awareness – of certain dangers that has changed. And we worry about what neighbours will think if we let our children play out in the street, about being seen as an irresponsible parent for letting them go out alone. And maybe we forget what it felt like and what we learned from exploring the outside world when we were kids.
So, what can we do to help kids roam freely and – importantly – safely?
- Make sure your kids know how to handle traffic in your area – and their bicycle. And do this before they go to secondary school!
- Petition your council to reduce speed limits (we totally support our friends over at Sustrans and urge you to sign up to their Free Range Kids campaign too!)
- Gradually increase time children are allowed out without contacting you – you will both find it reassuring
- Let your children bring a friend when you go out as a family – if their friends have been out with you before, you’ll know the ones you trust to be out with your kids without you
- Think about getting together with neighbours to close your street for play after school or at the weekend – see our friends over at Playing Out or at London Play for advice
- Remember what you did as a child or young person and talk about it with your kids (within reason!)
- (possibly controversial this one!) You could give kids (cheap!) mobile phones – if you know they are at the end of a phone line you might worry less. Though do be warned as they get older they will turn them off…
- Support the Love Outdoor Play campaign: Put a sticker in your window to show you support outdoor play where you live, tell everyone you know about the campaign and get them involved, and share your experiences and concerns here on this blog.
Do you have any more hints? What’s worked in your area? Do let us know on here, on the Facebook page or on Twitter.
How did you play outside when you were young?
It’s been a fantastic day listening to local radio stations as callers have phoned in with their stories about what they liked to play as children and young people. These included a phone in on BBC Radio Suffolk (in the first 20 mins) where Julie told listeners about how she liked making go-carts, playing rounders and going for long bike rides. Steve, who rang in live, reminisced about making dens and playing football in the street as well as going to the Broomhill Park after school.
Links to all of today’s radio shows and newspaper stories have been posted on the Facebook page – though if you’ve heard more please let us know!
So what are your favourite play memories as a child? What did you like doing?
What can YOU do to #LoveOutdoorPlay?
Today we can announce that Play England, backed by the Free Time Consortium, is re-launching the Love Outdoor Play Campaign, which is calling on everyone everywhere to find ways to make sure more children can play outside more often.
The Free Time Consortium brings together 12 local play organisations and 5 specialist organisations – all listed below. Together we already have about £3million from a wide range of sources – trusts, corporate sponsorship, earned income, local grants and contracts. This will fund activities such as the usual after school clubs, holiday play schemes and adventure playgrounds, but also include prison visiting services, street play projects and bespoke services for disadvantaged and disabled children. Some of our work is building great places to play, and some is promoting more sensible approaches to risk-benefit assessments and workforce skills. Some of the partners such as Milton Keynes Play Association are 40 years old and some, like Shiremoor Adventure Playground Trust, have only been set up a year or so. Whatever our histories, we are united in our commitment to work together to increase children and young people’s opportunities for play and recreation.
The Cabinet Office’s Social Action Fund has invested in the consortium to help us to increase volunteering in support of children’s play – this means that, along with this campaign, we will be generating 20,000 volunteering opportunities over the next couple of years with something for everyone to get involved in. We’ll also be sharing the lessons we are learning so other communities can replicate the projects, and will be producing the guidance most needed to support great outdoor play whether that’s in an after school club or just out on your street. So whatever your skills, whatever time you have available, whatever your age and whatever you would find most fun, there will be plenty of ways to get involved.
Before I go on I first need to say a huge thanks to the Geography Collective for handing us such a magnificent campaign to build on, and to all the existing supporters who have built the profile of this critical issue so far – we hope we can count on your continued support and ideas, and that you’ll tell all your friends and colleagues, your local businesses and MPs about the re-launch and about our mission to build a visible community to support exploration, adventure and play.
So – for the new readers – why Love Outdoor Play I hear you asking? Well let me ask you – what would a world where no one was allowed to play outside be like? What would be the impact on health? Or how we feel about our neighbours and where we live? Would we have the friendships that mean so much to us? How happy would our childhoods be?
Both the Children’s Society Good Childhood Review published last week and the Unicef research on children’s happiness identify increasing opportunities to play outside as one of the simple things we can do to improve the quality of life for children and young people across England.
Over the next few weeks on this Love Outdoor Play blog (and through Twitter, facebook and newsletters) we’ll be sharing with you the stories about the local projects and the people that are volunteering – or giving in other ways – to increase the opportunities for children to play in their area. We’ll also be inviting guest bloggers to share what they love about outdoor play – do let us know if you’d like to be one of them.
So what can you do right now?
- You could post below how you show that you Love Outdoor Play, or how you’d like to be able to
- You could click over to the Take Action page to see some of the suggestions there
- You could take a look at the fantastic work being done by the partners in the Free Time Consortium – feel free to get in touch directly to register your interest in volunteering or helping in any other way
- Or you could tweet, facebook or email this page and spread the word about the campaign with others.
By supporting Love Outdoor Play, together we can make sure more children can play out more often in all of our communities, whatever it takes.
Cath Prisk, Director – Play England
The Free Time Consortium brings together:
- Birmingham PlayCare Network
- Children’s Links (Lincolnshire)
- Hackney Play Association
- Hillingdon Play Association
- KIDS (the disabled children’s charity)
- Lambeth Play Association
- London Play
- Manchester Young Lives
- Milton Keynes Play Association
- Participation Works (hosted by the National Children’s Bureau)
- Play England (hosted by the National Children’s Bureau)
- Play Torbay
- Playwork Partnerships (University of Gloucestershire)
- Plymouth Play Association
- Shiremoor Adventure Playground Trust (North Tyneside)
- SkillsActive (the Sector Skills Council)
- Wansdyke Play Association (Bath & North East Somerset)
Love Outdoor Play – Handing over..
We in The Geography Collective launched Love Outdoor Play just over a year ago. In that time the campaign has gone from strength to strength. A wide range of individuals, experts, charities and companies have come together under a single manifesto and call for more outdoor play. Among many highlights (including Orange creating an app for us and Play England to map places to play… and ordering hundreds of stickers to put up in street windows) one that stands out most for me is the work of Chris Gregory on the Isle of Man who organised for the LOP logo to appear on the back of nearly 200,000 milk cartons on the island.
We recently announced that we were going to hand the campaign over to new hands as our work has expanded. We’ve been busy developing a new version of Mission:Explore, our website for creating challenges and explorations for children to complete. If you are a play charity or not-for-profit we will be very pleased to give you a free account to create missions.. just ask. We’re also really excited to be working on Mission:Explore Food, a new alternative and playful cookbook that we are creating, will be launching at the Hay Festival in 2012 and crowd funding here.
We will still be involved in Love Outdoor Play and working to increase the number of children who have access to high quality outdoor play, learning and experiences… but the management of this campaign is moving on.
The next post will explain all… and it’s very exciting news indeed.
As a final note I’d like to remind you to remember the importance of geography. Ultimately children being able to play outdoors is all about geography. From exciting places to build dens and safe places to cross roads to parental assessment of local risks to managing to close streets.. thinking, acting and educating geographically on a hyper-local level is crucial to increasing the number of children that have the freedom to enjoy and learn from play outdoors.
On behalf of The Geography Collective and myself I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has supported us and Love Outdoor Play over the last year (or so). Without your trust, skill, enthusiasm and drive the campaign would have never worked.
Thank you and in 2012 let’s change the landscape of outdoor play for the better.
Outdoor Learning: Practical guidance, ideas and support for teachers and practitioners in Scotland
Well done to all those involved in writing these new resources for outdoor learning in Scotland. No matter where you are in the world you will find the ideas within Outdoor Learning: Practical guidance, ideas and support for teachers and practitioners in Scotland useful.
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Two new resources published for Outdoor Learning
Help to protect 2,012 outdoor spaces by the end of 2012
Kathryn Cook from Fields in Trust has been in contact about their fantastic effort to help save playing fields across the UK. Over 2012 they plan to protect 2,012 fields and they need our help to do it. In their own words (and that of the Duke of Cambridge) this is what it’s all about and how you can help…
Save a space for me!
If you like getting out into the fresh air, having a kick about in your local park or just seeing a bit of green space then mark this date in your diary! On 18 October, for four weeks only, you can visit www.qe2fields.com and show your support for your local green spaces., search for your favourite places or see which ones you like a look of and with one click, you can show you support them.
So get ready for 18 October and get clicking to say ‘Save a Space for Me!’.
“The Challenge is a really exciting project that is aiming to protect 2,012 outdoor recreational spaces by the end of 2012. This will build a tangible, living legacy for both HM The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee and the 2012 Olympics. They can be anywhere public that you relax and enjoy yourself – parks, playing fields, coastal walks, bike trails, playgrounds…. the list is long! If you want to see whether any spaces have been put forward for protection near you, visit www.qe2fields.com and put your postcode into the search. Whether you’re a keen outdoorsy person, or like spending the odd afternoon in the local park with your family, then get involved with their Challenge. As the Duke of Cambridge, who is patron of the Challenge says..
“The Queen Elizabeth II Fields Challenge is ambitious but much needed. It will require the support of sporting bodies, local authorities and, most importantly, the British people in local communities up and down the country. I am certain the Fields will bring lasting benefit to countless individual lives.”
A major win for outdoor play in Bristol
Well done to everyone in Bristol who have been involved in this.. What a beautiful win and fantastic step forward.
Press release from Bristol City Council.
Red tape cut to encourage playing out
Release Date: 02-Aug-2011
A campaign to enable more children and young people to play out safely on residential streets is being backed by the city council.
The green light has been given for more frequent road closures for a few hours after school by groups of neighbours and communities, without having to apply each time. Until now, residents have been allowed to apply for three formal road closures a year for street parties or other community activities.
Instead they will be able to do one annual application as long as all the neighbours are consulted.
The aim is to encourage more resident-organised street play sessions for children and young people in their streets, based on a model developed by the Bristol-based Playing Out project, where the street becomes a temporary ‘play street’, with through traffic diverted but residents still have car access for parking. Residents ‘steward’ either end of the street to ensure this happens safely.
This will be the theme of this year’s popular Bristol Playday on College Green tomorrow (Wednesday 3 August) between 12 noon to 4pm.
It will highlight the benefit for communities of seeking more playing out opportunities for their children and young people, together with a number of street play events around Bristol, organised by residents with support from our partners Playing Out www.playingout.net and Streets Alive www.streetsalive.org.uk.
Alice Ferguson, co-founder and Director of the Playing Out project said: “There is a widespread feeling that children need to have more freedom to play outside safely, for their health and happiness. We are very happy to see Bristol taking a lead in this way and hope that other cities will soon follow.”
Chris Gittins, Director of Streets Alive said, “During the 100s of street parties in Bristol every year residents have told us how amazing it is for kids to be able to play safely for a change in the street. Our surveys have clearly shown that the events give them courage to support play at other times in the street or elsewhere.”
Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, Cllr Clare Campion-Smith said: “Playing is such an important part of a child’s life, giving them the freedom to run around outside and enjoy themselves with their friends. It’s healthy, it’s fun and it helps build our communities.
“Bristol has a strong reputation for encouraging street parties, as was seen for the Royal Wedding. We now want to lead the way in helping communities organise safe playing out for children and young people in our neighbourhoods on a more regular basis.”
Cllr Jon Rogers, Cabinet Member for Care and Health said: “This is a very significant move for a city the size of Bristol, sending out a clear signal to parents and communities that we will support them organise street play activities.
“Parents are concerned that our children and young people are living more sedentary life styles, so initiatives like this are an important way of encouraging our youngsters to play outside in a safe environment.”
Transport Cabinet Member Tim Kent said: “We were very keen that the rules governing street closures should be relaxed and red tape cut to help community groups make this initiative happen on the ground. We believe this is a first for our city and I hope will be taken up enthusiastically.”
Details of the new procedure and a new application form are being worked on by council officers and will be launched this autumn.
A new lead for Love Outdoor Play
I’m really pleased to say that another, and very cool, organisation has agreed to take a lead on this campaign. We will say who in a little while, but it will be great.
Many thanks for your support.
Could you lead Love Outdoor Play?
We love outdoor play and that’s why we started this campaign. It’s growing and doing well but some of our other work on play.. like this and like this… are taking up so much of our time that we are not paying this campaign enough attention. We will always support it.. but the time has come to ask if anyone would like to take a lead on it.
If you are interested please reply to this post. Many thanks. Daniel.
How cool is this?
Many thanks to Chris at The Children’s Centre on the Isle of Man for this photo. Well done Chris on making such a massive noise for outdoor play on the island.
