How Our Playout Programme Started

Part 1

How Our Playout Programme Started

Playout started as a European initiative with ideas emanating from both Austria, and England. Tamsin (Chair of General Council) visited the Austrian Kinderfrende and saw a new project called Playbus, which was funded for groups to take ideas from the social education programme of the Austrian movement out to the streets and parks with activities such as co-operative games, arts and crafts and parachute games. It had a full compliment of staff and worked with volunteers to get things going across Austria in the 9 main regions of the country. Meanwhile back in England the active Woodcraft leaders and helpers from Lambeth were being asked to provide activities on a Saturday in a local park for a group called Friends of the Park, which consisted of co-operative games and working with local parents. This was given a small budget of £500 to go for a trial period. As both ideas came together the Woodcraft Folk experimented on what might work here by running a day in a local park after school where they played what is now called a stations game (previously known as potty sports). It was so well supported and had so many spin offs including attracting new helpers to the movement, an interest from the black community in co-operative games and a feel good factor for the volunteers in the district. We realised that the things we do with our children at group and camp learned over a period of time, has real value in the field of Play and community work.

As members of the Lambeth Play Association and the local connections established in Lambeth we were invited to take part in a meeting to discuss some new funning available for Play from Barbados (Lottery funding) and so a bid was put together for the first Lambeth Playout.

At the same time General Folk Council asked other regions if they would like to be involved in a similar project for their region, and Birkenhead came forward as a district very much concerned about poverty and participation. They saw this as a way of encouraging their volunteers to gain experience and share responsibilities. A Sunday spent together sharing the information and the bids were ready to go in.

The projects were both awarded £60,000 over the two years and it was then that the real work had to begin. Steering groups were established in both areas with general council having an overview with development in mind. Linda Osborn the chair of Development committee helped with the process as an active member of Lambeth Woodcraft Folk and also on several committees concerned with Play and Childcare. The sharing of how this was done saved time and effort and is certainly a way forward in any future developments. (You don’t have to do it all on your own)

Playout Lambeth and Playout Birkenhead started advertising our free open-access, outdoor play scheme for children 5 – 13. Informing the community that we will be operating in their local parks and green spaces during the school holidays. Our activities include co-operative games, arts and crafts, parachute games, and wide games to encourage children to explore and appreciate the green spaces they play in. Playout aims to encourage children and young people to enjoy the benefits of playing out in a safe environment and to make our local green spaces more accessible to the community through co-operative play. It is also a chance for local children to become involved in planning and organising games for each other in their parks.

Aims of Playout

·  To offer co-operative play and games in a safe, non-threatening environment to children who are often isolated from the mainstream and excluded from clubs

·  To listen and respond to children’s needs and aspirations in regards to co-operative play and encourage debate and involvement in planning

·  To encourage the development of volunteers in running/planning/delivering local services on co-operative and free access play

Things we needed to get started

·  A Project Co-ordinator with a full current driving licence

·  A management committee or steering group and a chair and treasure for the committee/group

·  A base or office where a computer and storage for equipment can be kept

·  A vehicle for moving equipment and staff from site to site

·  Some basic play equipment and a parachute

·  A small easy to assemble marquee/gazebo for shelter

·  Some ground sheets or small tables and chairs

·  Some basic arts and crafts equipment and materials

What our Playout does

·  Playout teaches children the importants of co-operative play and how they can entertain themselves without expensive equipment.

·  Making children feel that they and other children around them are important and have the right to play safely in their local green spaces.

·  Brings children from a diverse range of cultures, abilities and backgrounds to play together and learn to celebrate their differences.

·  Teaching children that they have the ability to do new things.

·  Teaching children to use their imaginations to make games and Art n’ crafts more exciting.

A typical day of Playout

A typical day in the life of Playout! A group of about 4 to 6 Play Workers and leaders turn up in a minibus at a site to play with the children that are there. We take play and craft equipment to engage the children in activities that emphasise co-operative and environmental play, which try and encourage children to explore and appreciate where they live and whom they live with.

The first thing we do is to clear the site of litter and dog mess, and fence off any areas that are hazardous. We then set up marquees and gazebos with ground sheets underneath and around the area to create a focus for the craft activities, and set out the games equipment a bit further out. We then have some play workers doing the craft activities near the marquee/gazebos and some running games near by. The craft activities and games run well together and seem to cater for all children’s play needs. We usually start the games with a parachute games to get all the children together, and then move on to running around games, ball games etc. We have out general craft activities that they children love to dip in and out of, such as painting, beads, wool weaving etc. and we always have a couple of big craft activities that are different each day, (see below).

We run the activities for two hours, have a lunch break for the workers of ½ hour, and then do another two hours. There is also the option of moving to another site in the afternoon to cover two sites in one day. At several intervals during the day we monitor the attendance of children on the project. Part of the Play Leaders role is to also chat to parents and interested adults, give out flyers of further Play Out! Dates, and collect comments and feedback from parents and children and put them in our scrapbook.

At the end of the day we pack everything up into the minibus, clear the site of all rubbish and go back to the office. Here we clean up any painting/gluing/messy stuff, top up any resources running low, and write up how the day went in our daily record sheets.

Part 2

Play Types

Ø  Symbolic Play

Play, which allows control, gradual exploration and increased understanding, without the risk of being out of one’s depth.

·  Using a piece of wood to symbolise a person, or a piece of string to symbolise a wedding ring.

Ø  Rough and tumble play

Close encounter play which is less to do with fighting and more to do with touching, tickling, gauging relative strength, discovering physical flexibility and the exhilaration of display.

·  Playful fighting, wrestling and chasing where the children involved are obviously unhurt and giving every indication that they are enjoying themselves.

Ø  Socio-dramatic play

The enactment of real and potential experiences of an intense personal, social domestic or interpersonal nature.

·  Playing at house,

·  Going to the shops,

·  Being mothers and fathers,

·  Organising a meal

·  Or even having a row.

Ø  Social Play

Play which contains the rules and criteria for social engagement and interaction can be revealed, explored and amended.

·  Any social or interactive situation, which contains an expectation on all parties that they will abide by the rules or protocols. I.e. games, conversations, making something together.

Ø  Creative Play

Play, which allows a new response, the transformation of information, and awareness of new connections, with an element of surprise.

·  Enjoying creation with a range of materials and tools for its own sake

Ø  Communication play

Play using words, nuances or gestures.

·  Mime

·  Jokes

·  Play acting

·  Mickey taking

·  Singing

·  Debate

·  Poetry

Ø  Dramatic play

Play, which dramatizes events in which the child is not a direct participator.

·  Presentation of a TV show

·  An event on the street

·  A religious or festive event

·  Even a funeral

Ø  Deep play

Play which allows the child to encounter risky or even potentially life threatening experiences, to develop survival skills and conquer fear.

·  Leaping onto an aerial runway

·  Riding a bike on a parapet

·  Balancing on a high beam

Ø  Exploratory play

Play to access factual information consisting of manipulative behaviours such as handling, throwing, banging or mouthing objects.

·  Engaging with an object or area, either by manipulation or movement, assessing its properties, possibilities and content, such as stacking bricks.

Ø  Fantasy play

Play, which rearranges the world in the child’s way, a way that is unlikely to occur.

·  Playing at being a pilot flying around the world

·  Or the owning of an expensive car

Ø  Imaginative play

Play where the conventional rules, which govern the physical world, do not apply.

·  Imagining you are or pretending to be, a tree or ship or patting a dog which isn’t there

Ø  Locomotor play

Movement in any direction for its own sake.

·  Chase, tag

·  Hide and seek

·  Tree climbing

Ø  Mastery play

Control of the physical and affective ingredients of the environments.

·  Digging holes

·  Changing the course of a stream

·  Constructing shelters

·  Building fires

Ø  Object Play

Play, which uses infinite and interesting sequences of hand-eye manipulations and movements.

·  Examination and novel use of any object, cloth, paintbrush, cup.

Ø  Role play

Play exploring ways of being, although not normally of an intense personal, social, domestic or interpersonal nature.

·  Brushing with a broom

·  Dialling with a telephone, driving a car

The Types of Play and Craft We Use

We wanted to make sure that the aims and principles of Woodcraft were very strong on Play Out, so that the things that make Woodcraft different from other children’s organisations were really strong. Our aim was to engage children and young people in co-operative community play. We achieved this by making sure that all our activities had a co-operative focus, where children were encouraged to play together to explore and appreciate where they lived and who they lived with. Below is a short report about how Birkenhead Woodcraft Folk organised their activities, and some descriptions of the activities and games.

Crafts

We had seven main craft activities that we rotated around each site, including making a model village, totem poles, musical instruments and huge puppets from cardboard boxes, plastic pots etc, and doing large freezes such as an underwater one or at the fairground. Sometimes these morphed slightly e.g. the underwater freezes changed into making fishes out of junk and hanging them of trees, but it meant we had a general theme for the day so we knew what equipment we needed to take. We would also interpret the themes to suit the site e.g. weave wool through trees or fences for a backdrop to a freeze etc. We made the crafts as co-operative as we could; so all the children were making something that came together as a communal creation. We wanted to do craft activities that were sustainable for the children when we were not there e.g. that they could do at home as well, which are why we used recycled boxes, and other junk modelling material to give them ideas of cheap activities at home. There was also lots of regular crafts out each day such as painting, drawing, weaving gods eyes, and beads, which worked well to engage the quieter children, who then had a way to get involved in the bigger crafts. All the equipment was in separate boxes, which made it easy to set up and put away, and keep it in order. During our last week we collected a huge industrial size roll of paper from the Play Council scrounge shop and took it to each site, where the children lay on it, drew round each other and painted themselves to show how they had played out this summer. It was huge success and the children loved it.

Some tips for crafts

·  If you have the space and the people to help (possibly your Woodcraft children and families) save as many cardboard boxes, plastic pots, cardboard rolls, and other junk modelling material. These items are great for craft activities (see below for ideas), but they do get used up very quickly!

·  Find out where your local scrounges shop is, as they are a great source of free craft items like plastic pots etc. Birkenhead has a Play Council which has a scrounge shop attached, where local businesses donated all sorts of things including rolls of paper, huge cardboard tubes that make great musical instruments, beads etc. If you have no scrounge shop, you could try going to local businesses directly as many are all too happy to donate unwanted paper and other bits.

·  Find a local supplier for other craft items such as glue, paint, scissors and other bits that can’t be scrounged! Our Play Council has a shop attached so we use them. Otherwise shops such as the Works are a good source of fairly cheap craft items.