Keep up to date with Love Outdoor Play!
Get campaign updates by following this blog and finding us on Facebook and Twitter.
Love Outdoor Play in action!
Giving a little of our time and skills to further a cause we believe in is one way we can get involved and make a change. In the past, showing our support for a campaign or volunteering often meant committing a significant amount of our time, but the digital revolution has helped diversify opportunities and create the concept of micro-volunteering; small actions taken by many to help make a big difference. This wide spectrum of social action – from taking a few minutes to complete an action through your mobile phone, to embarking on a long-term volunteer placement over a number of months, is at the heart of the Love Outdoor Play campaign.
Last week for Valentine’s Day, we asked everyone to take action to promote the campaign across their social media platforms and by sending their local MPs and Councillors a card, letter or email asking them to Love Outdoor Play. The response was fantastic. Around 100 people displayed the Love Outdoor Play symbol to show their support, and we already know of many others who contacted their local decision makers too – if you did, please let us know if you got a response. We know that lots of you are taking action to support children’s play. If you are, we would love you to tell us about it here.
As the campaign unfolds, we aim to provide everyone with the opportunity to get involved and show how they Love Outdoor Play. This will range from inviting supporters to write guest blog posts on how they have made a difference to children’s to play, to matching volunteers with local play projects and helping them run successful volunteer schemes. You can keep up-to-date with all the latest campaign news and developments by following this blog and joining us on Facebook and Twitter.
The feedback and support we’ve received for the campaign over the past few weeks has been brilliant. Thanks to everyone who has been involved so far, we look forward to continuing to work together in the future to make sure more children can play out more often.
Can you spread the Love Outdoor Play message this Valentine’s Day?
We Love Outdoor Play and we know you do too! This is a growing movement encouraging everyone to get involved in whatever way they can to make sure more children can play out more often.
And because you love outdoor play, do you think you could spread that love on Valentine’s day?
How about sending a Valentine’s card to your local MP or Councillor?
Local Authorities, accountable to our MPs and Councillors, make decisions that affect every aspect of our neighbourhoods, our schools and children’s centres and the parks, woods and green spaces near us. Town and parish councillors often have direct influence on play spaces.
The decisions they make shape the spaces and places children have to play, as well as the availability of after school clubs (and whether they are staffed by play workers), of holiday play schemes and adventure playgrounds. They decide if it is free to close a street for play or if you have to pay. They will have influence over local schools, and for instance could recommend longer lunch breaks or play training for lunch time supervisors.
But do they even realise how important freedom to play outside is to you, to your family and to your local community?
So how about telling them what’s most important to you, about what you would like to see and encouraging them to show that they Love Outdoor Play too?
This could be as simple as:
- Asking them to email us to add their name to our list of supporters
- Displaying the Love Outdoor Play symbol
- Committing to consider children and young people’s need for freedom to play when they are looking at planning, transport, education, public health and parks
- Keep up to date with the latest campaign news by signing up to:
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/loveoutdoorplay
- Twitter: @LoveOutdoorPlay
You could use this Love Outdoor Play Valentine’s Card and sample letter to tell them why they should support the campaign and children’s play, or make up your own. The more personal the better, but just do what you have time for.
If you’re a parent or work with children and young people, how about getting them to make a card? The more the merrier! And for schools and nurseries that can count towards your ‘civic engagement’ commitments as well as literacy…
If you want more evidence to back up why we all need to love outdoor play you could send your MP or councilor a present of the World Without Play literature review (published by Play England & BTHA) – packed with research from every angle about why play is valuable.
You can find the names of your Councillors, MP and other representatives from Write to Them, through Parliament.gov.uk or through Direct Gov.
And do send a copy or photo to us, so we can share the love with each other – and let us know the responses.
Happy Valentine’s!
How important is outdoor play to the early years??!
This letter went all over the #loveoutdoorplay and #playoutdoors community yesterday morning as the brilliant Sue Palmer made the case for children’s need to play in her usual inimitable style on the BBC’s Today programme. It was at about 8:30am if you want to listen again.
SIR – We welcome the Government’s attempts to simplify the Early Years Foundation Stage curriculum, for children from birth to the age of five, but there is widespread concern about the direction of the current revision.
There is a need to consider the central place of imaginative, spontaneous play, and of young children’s physical development in the curriculum.
We must also look at the “schoolification” of early childhood, with its over-assessment and excessive monitoring. Controversial “early learning goals” are putting premature emphasis on cognitive learning.
Parents are under undue pressure to prepare children for formal schooling, according to a system too inflexible to cater for the highly diverse developmental needs of young children. Many feel disquiet about commercial influences and the statutory imposition of inappropriate computer experience on young children.
There should be ways to pursue equality without imposing an indiscriminate compulsory framework upon all children, irrespective of their needs.
Today we are launching Early Childhood Action, with the support of around 50 major figures and organisations, to form a coalition of those in the early years sector. We will be drafting an alternative curriculum document to build on the positive aspects of the Early Years Foundation Stage, while addressing its key shortcomings.
Dr Richard House
University of Roehampton
Philip Pullman
Sue Palmer
Baroness Greenfield
University of Oxford
Kim Simpson
Montessori teacher and counsellor/coach
Grethe Hooper Hansen
Ex-president, Society for Effective Affective Learning
Dr Jayne Osgood
London Metropolitan University
Ed Mayo
Co-author, Consumer Kids
Philip Parkin
General Secretary, Voice
Penelope Leach
Birkbeck College, London
Agnes Nairn
EM-Lyon Business School and co-author, Consumer Kids
Professor Emeritus Janet Moyles
Early Years and Play Consultant
Pie Corbett
Literacy specialist and author
Sue Gerhardt
Psychotherapist
Dr Aric Sigman
Child health education lecturer
Linda Pound
Early Years Consultant and writer
Dr Maria Robinson
Author, Understanding Behaviour and Development in Early Childhood
Robin Balbernie
Infant mental health specialist
Sally Goddard Blythe
Director, Institute for Neuro-Physiological Psychology, Chester
Dr Andrew Lockett
Early Years Consultant
Do our supporters agree that Love Outdoor Play - and Play England – should be seeking to add our voice to this?
Play England has campaigned on this issue at length, submitting responses on behalf of the sector to all the consultations and meeting with officials, ministers and Dame Tickel. In this we’ve worked with SkillsActive, British Heart Foundation and Playwork Partnerships, and many local after school clubs, adventure playgrounds and holiday schemes, who are getting more and more worried about the lack of time the 0 – 5s are expected to spend just playing.
We expected, along with everyone else, that the EYFS would become more play friendly. Instead it has weakened the already tiny references to free, unstructured play. In turn, this will lead to even fewer early years staff building their skills and confidence in developing physically active playful environments where children are allowed to play without constant interruptions.
What does it look like in practice?
If you want to see what I mean, take a look at Teacher Tom’s blog. Tom reflects on his community nursery practice online just about every day and builds wonderful immersive play into everything. If anyone knows any UK based similar blogs do let us know!
It is also worth looking at Sandfield Natural Play Centre in Knowsley, Merseyside, which won last year’s NDNA Nursery of the Year award, where children use real tools and climb trees and are outside all year round. Their local schools report their children are consistently ‘school ready’, not because they are forced to write all day but because they are confident and articulate and know who they are. They have played. Outside. You can read a bit more about their philosophy of natural play over at Jan White’s blog.
Promoting physically active play
Ingrid, our early years and health lead who is also just starting her Early Years Profession Status training, ran an ‘Active Play’ training session yesterday with a group of health professionals, teachers and early years staff in Tyneside. They were telling her about the increasing numbers of obese children they are seeing and how they will use what they’ve learned – and their access to their local adventure playground at Shiremoor – to increase free play outdoors. They just needed that bit of a confidence boost.
Lots of play associations and playwork training providers (lots listed under our supporters tab, more welcomed!) offer similar workshops, but many schools and children’s centres may not have considered whether their staff have the skills to look after outdoor environments and promote physically active play all year round. Why will they invest in this area if it’s not even in the curriculum?
Its great to see the media interest in the Guardian and most of all in the Telegraph, but will this be enough to ensure that young children have the freedom to play outside regularly?
Taking action
So, what could Love Outdoor Play do to make sure everyone in Early Years gets to show how they love outdoor play too?
Do you support the Charter for Children’s Play?
Way back in 1992 the Charter for Children’s Play was developed, and today it is still as powerful as ever. This underpins the work of Play England, the Free Time Consortium and of this campaign to Love Outdoor Play.
So whether this is the first time you’ve seen it or if it’s been your guiding document for the last 19 years how about letting us know how you or your organisation – or your family! – puts the Charter into practice?
The Charter for Children’s Play
Children have the right to play
All children and young people have the right to play and need to play: free to choose what they do – lively or relaxed, noisy or quiet – with the chance to stretch and challenge themselves, take risks and enjoy freedom. The right to play is enshrined in Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Every child needs time and space to play
All children and young people – disabled and non-disabled – whatever their age, culture, ethnicity or social and economic background, need time and space to play freely and confidently with their peers, free of charge, indoors and outdoors, somewhere they feel safe. Play provision should actively include the widest range of children and seek to engage with those from minority groups.
Adults should let children play
Parents, carers and other adults can support children and young people’s play by respecting the value and importance of all types of play, playing with their children and by creating opportunities and allowing time for children to play independently with their friends, inside and outside the home.
Children should be able to play freely in their local areas
Children have the same right to use and enjoy public space as others. Local streets, estates, green spaces, parks and town centres should be accessible for children and young people to move around in safety and offer places where they can play freely, experience nature, explore their environment and be with their friends.
Children value and benefit from staffed play provision
Children should have access to a choice of staffed facilities where children’s play rights and needs are the first priority, such as adventure playgrounds, play centres, holiday play schemes, after- school play clubs, breakfast play clubs, toy libraries, play buses and play ranger services.
Children’s play is enriched by skilled playworkers
Qualified, skilled playworkers are trained to put children’s play needs at the centre of their work in a variety of settings, enhancing the range and quality of play experiences for all children. They are the best people to run staffed play provision for school-aged children. The role of the playworker is as important as that of any skilled professional working with children and should be respected and rewarded accordingly.
Children need time and space to play at school
The school day should allow time for children to relax and play freely with their friends. Young children learn best through play and, as they get older, play supports and enriches their learning. Children learn best if teaching is creative and enjoyable. In school, time and space for play and outdoor learning is as important as formal teaching. School grounds should be good places to play.
Children sometimes need extra support to enjoy their right to play
Children and young people living away from home or visiting unfamiliar or controlled environments such as hospital, prison, immigration centres, and residential homes and schools, sometimes experience fear, anxiety and discomfort. For these children it is especially important to ensure they have good play opportunities facilitated by trained staff and volunteers.
Posters and background material about the charter can be downloaded from: http://www.playengland.org.uk/resources/charter-for-children’s-play.aspx. Do let us know if you’ve produced resources like these that you’d like us to share!
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?
by Cath Prisk
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.
..
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.”
