Promoting  playwork and

creating and advocating for safe

and stimulating play spaces for

children.

Informed by a continuous process of ‘think and do’ we bring together local knowledge, artistic practices and progressive playwork and ECE approaches to co-create

more ’playful cities’.

(Play)working towards our vision of more PLAYFUL CITIES:

1. Pop-Up + PLAY! - street and outdoor sessions/holiday clubs

2. Improving public play spaces- consulting on playground design

3. South Africa’s first community-based Adventure Playground

4. Research and advocacy on Playwork and Early Childhood Education

Trends and challenges

•‘Nature deficit disorder’ (Richard Louv)

•Outdoor and street play diminishing, certain types of play seen

as anti-social behavior

• Real and imagined risks – crime, pedophilia and overly

stringent health and safety regulations in public/play spaces

(Tim Gill)

• “Too much, Too soon”…less time for free play, play deprivation

• Urban land use – ‘Profit over People’

Play, Creativity and Progress

•Increased spotlight on play – playwork, theory and science

•Playfulness essential to creativity, innovation, vibrant and productive societies + economies

•Play as a social investment

What is a PLAYFUL CITY?

• Play is the child’s language….cities must respond to children through playful environments

• The ‘environment as a third teacher’…taking this definition beyond the classroom

• “Play as path not as destination”

• Cities/spaces that support multi-generational play

• Open Streets + Play Streets

Healthy, child-centered cities are greener and more playful

•Reversing the decline in children’s health requires a multi-pronged approach.

•Current focus is mainly on sanitation, nutrition and education.

•A vital but overlooked factor is the loss of free play, especially active outdoor play, initiated and directed by children and safe, stimulating spaces in which to do so.

The Beginning, an End and Beginning again…

Pop-Up + PLAY!

Our Approach

•Practice-led theory

• ‘We make the road by walking’ – Paulo Friere

•3 major influences - Forest School, Reggio Emilia, the Playwork Principles

1. Forest SchoolLearning in and from the natural environment not only develops children’s physical and cognitive competencies, it also keeps them healthy. Extensive research shows that children who spend a significant time playing/learning outdoors each day:

• have fewer infections and allergies

• are less stressed• have better motor skills

• are less obese

• have well developed social skills

• have fewer conflicts

• are more creative and imaginative

Research and anecdotal claims show forest school approaches are good for children. A 2003 study (University of Heidelberg) compared the performance of children from 50 forest and standard kindergartens

Results: In various categories - ‘cognitive tasks’; ‘social behaviour’; creativity’; ‘physical ability’, graduates of forest schools outperformed their peers and possessed a clear advantage. 

Benefits for the girl child - girls especially benefited from having attended forest school. The teachers gave them higher credit for being more self-confident, physically, emotionally and intellectually

Challenge: changing perceptions of nature/ the outdoors as unsafe and unhealthy

2. Reggio Emilia

The environment as the ‘third teacher’ Children can best create meaning and make

sense of their world through environments which

support complex, varied, sustained, and changing

relationships between people, the world of

experience, ideas and the many ways of

expressing ideas.

3. Playwork1. All children and young people need to play. The impulse to play is

innate. Play is a biological, psychological, and social necessity, and is fundamental to the healthy development and well being of individuals and communities.

2. Play is a process that is freely chosen, personally directed, and intrinsically motivated. That is, children and young people determine and control the content and intent of their play by following their own instincts, ideas, and interests, in their own way, for their own reasons.

3. The prime focus and essence of playwork is to support and facilitate the play process and this should inform the development of play policy, strategy, training, and education.

4. For playworkers, the play process takes precedence and playworkers act as advocates for play when engaging with adult-led agendas.

5. The role of the playworker is to support all children and young people in the creation of a space in which they can play.

6. The playworker’s response to children and young people playing is based on a sound up-to-date knowledge of the play process, and reflective practice.

7. Playworkers recognize their own impact on the playspace and also the impact of children and young people’s play on the playworker.

8. Playworkers choose an intervention style that enables children and young people to extend their play. All playworker intervention must balance risk with the developmental benefit and well being of children

We see children as……•Competent; co-creators; equal partners, our teachers not just ‘learners’ and NOT just vulnerable, victims, beneficiaries in need of care

•“Active agents of social change” - Elelwani Ramugondo (2012, UCT)

•Seven rhetorics of play - Brian Sutton-Smith (1997)

Play as Progress - Dominant rhetoric. Children play in order to learn skills required for successful adulthood and to fulfill societal duties.  Play as Self and Imaginary – Emergent rhetoric. More freedom is given to children to express themselves and expand their imagination.

Improving Public Play Spaces

World Class Playgrounds for a ‘World Class African City’

Influenced by international trends and best practice on child-centered design. A move towards more natural playscapes and structures that provide appropriate risk and challenges; promote more problem solving and imaginative, collective and intergenerational play

The ‘blue economy’ design theory: Respond to basic needs with what you have; introduce innovations inspired by nature; offering more with less. Waste does not exist. Any by-product is the source for a new product

The importance of SAND – No public sandpits in Jhb! Why? An essential and versatile play material, with probably the highest play value, providing endless creative possibilities AND the most cost-effective and safe impact surfacing. Main risk is animal waste but can be easily managed and maintained.

Using natural materials already at JCPZ’s disposal eg, logs, rocks, wood chip etc. Recycling natural materials and alien vegetation and encouraging natural ‘loose parts’ play

Co-creating the design brief…..

“You need to go round asking kids what they would like in the playground like monkey bars, slides, climbing frames, a tree house, a mango tree for the kids to klimb on a swimming pool. And there should be a wet play box for when it rains. And there should be a sand pit” - Naliyah, 7 years

•Pop-Up + PLAY! design sessions - on site, with current users, using loose parts play, art, movement and music to create a design brief.

Improving public play spaces entails changing attitudes, as well as policy, on risk in playgrounds

“I am convinced that standardised playgrounds are dangerous, just in another way: when the distance between all the rungs in a climbing net or a ladder is exactly the same, the child has no need to concentrate on where he puts his feet. Standardisation is dangerous because play becomes simplified and the child does not have to worry about his movements. This lesson cannot be carried over to all the knobbly and asymmetrical forms, with which one is confronted throughout life.”

Helle Nebelong, leading Danish playscape designer

Pushing the boundaries of risk in a public playground in Berlin

Exciting playground at Kings Beach, Port Elizabeth, developed by the Nelson Mandela Bay Development Agency.

Ties in with tourism/economic development objectives.

Why cant similar spaces be prioritized in residential areas for social development objectives?

South Africa’s first community-based

Adventure Playground

What is an Adventure Playground? 1) a space - favoring natural materials

andunconventional play structures co-

designed by children that offer opportunities for open-ended, challenging and imaginative play

2) equipment - a variety of ‘loose parts’, real tools, junk, scrap and recycled materials for making and creating

3) a community of children and adult play workers, the latter of whom are there to guide and support, not direct

4) open access, free and after school and during holidays

After-school and holidays are a time when children are at greatest risk in the city. Most parents work very hard, long hours and are unable to provide adequate childcare. We see the urgent need to support parents and children in filling this gap so children are creatively occupied and fulfilling their potential.

Research and Advocacy

Shifting Practice >>> from Childcare to Playwork

• ‘Play as Progress’ + ‘Structured play’ vs a deeper understanding of play

• A more dynamic view of the child and the role of adults

• Meeting the needs of adults vs the needs of children – a delicate balance!

• Playwork in schools – most effective way to reach children. Change the culture of play supervision and encourage more free and loose parts play. Proven impact on academic performance. Make schools more playful, creative spaces that reflects the nature and needs of children.

• Supporting the emergence of playwork as a discipline/profession

Documenting our playwork practice •Producing evidence on project outcomes/impact

Strengthening research on play in Africa. •Contributing to the sparse history and sociology of play in Africa•Working towards a collaborative critical reader on play in Africa

Conclusions

Successes•Voluntary participation and positive feedback reveals a high demand from children and caregivers for play programmes.

•Putting play on the agenda of JCPZ

•Artists, musicians and other professionals drawn into the sphere of playwork.

•Opportunities for research into the history and sociology of play in Africa

•Adapting, evolving practice in the face of constraints, setbacks

Lessons Learned

•Communities must take ownership of public spaces and dedicate them to children’s play. Play is free. It also requires creativity and effort from adults to create the right kind of environment for children to engage in meaningful play.

•At local government level a more integrated approach to implementing play programmes is crucial

•The impact and outcomes of play initiatives in a public space are harder to measure than in schools.

Gaps in the policy environment • Lack of public space allocated to resident associations and CBOs for

the provision of play. The process of allocating underutilised spaces needs to be more efficient and user-friendly and lease agreements more supportive and enabling.

• Urban planning and legislation needs to be more child-centred. E.g., how does the new bylaw on the rubber surfacing of playgrounds benefit children?

• Relevant depts. eg Parks, Social and Community Dev. should have a dedicated desk on play provision working across all sectors – covering the built environment/play spaces as well as play services – centres, clubs, holiday programmes etc

• A far greater public spending commitment to realise children’s universal right to play provision.