Supporting every child in England's right to play
My name is Keith Rogers and I manage Sycamore Adventure Playground in Dudley for Dudley Metropolitan Borough Council and I am also a trustee for Play England. Like adventure playgrounds across the world, Sycamore Adventure is currently closed. Before the end of March, we would have 60 children in the morning, a different set of …
PPE, virus, deaths today, masks, Nightingale Hospital, Critical Care, stay at home, respirators, coughs, clapping for the NHS, Lockdown, oxygen., overwhelming, wash your hands, Corona, mass graves, peaks and plateau, anti-body …………………………….what do children make of this, how might they react? For one thing, they are playing in doors, and while numbers of reported accidents …
Play England and London Play are calling on Zurich, which recently withdrew its cover from several adventure playgrounds, to revisit its decision, issuing a Joint Statement which highlights what could be lost should other insurers follow suit. Lawrence Waterman OBE, chair of the British Safety Council said: “Young people need to learn about taking and managing …
A big thank you to everyone who has made our play policy forums so successful. Over 150 playworkers, play rangers, academics, head teachers, public health workers and councillors have come together to help shape a new manifesto for play. Huge thanks to hosts Bristol City Council, Bristol Play Network, Shiremoor Adventure Playground, Sycamore Adventure Playground …
Play has that power, through nonsense, to soften hard edges and warm the cold moments and offer a ‘what if…’ where previously only inevitability existed. Play England’s new Trustee Laura Walsh is Head of Play Services at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children NHS Foundation Trust. With Play in Hospital Week starting on Monday, here she talks …
Play is an essential part of every child’s life, and children at school and in early years settings need time and space to play. Children should have the opportunity to play before school, during break times and after school hours. Playtime support including training and awareness-raising for school staff and parents is vital, as well …
Shiremoor Adventure Playground is the latest play organisation to be accredited with Quality in Play (QiP), Play England’s quality assurance system for playwork practitioners. Shiremoor, in Newcastle upon Tyne, is a former mining area with high levels of deprivation. The adventure playground opened in 2010 as part of the Play Pathfinder Programme on a previously …
At a time when staffed play provision is being forced to close due to funding cuts, helping show the myriad benefits of outdoor play is vital. Research and evaluation projects that demonstrate these benefits can help local play organisations, including adventure playgrounds, secure funding. Play England’s recent ‘Street Play’ evaluation – that provides evidence …
As we reach the 30th anniversary of, founder Mick Conway looks back at its development and impact. Thirty years ago we had a problem. Children’s play provision was under threat because of massive central government cuts to local area funding. Three of us called a meeting and nobody came. We went to the pub …
Nic Mcewan is lead for the three year project, Play Works, designed to help adventure playgrounds improve how they monitor the impact they have on their communities. Here she describes how the project works. “Still something of a newbie on the play scene, it was only a couple of summers ago that I walked into an …