The Super Power of Loose Parts: Loose Parts Play in School

By Dan Rees-Jones

Within the first week or so of new job at Children’s Scrapstore as a Play Development Officer, I found myself delivering training in a small room to six lunchtime staff about play and playwork and what they could expect to see when their new Scrapstore PlayPod * opening in a few weeks.  I was confident in talking about play and playwork, but my main problem was that I really hadn’t got a clue about what they could expect to see!

It’s not that I was “loose parts shy”.  I am no stranger to Scrapstore and like many other play professionals I was one of those many folk that not only forgot my membership card every time but also relied heavily on Scrapstore for inspiration and valuable resources that supported and extended various different play sessions.... fondly remembering a play ranger session where we played cricket with a mannequin arm with much amusement!

The day before “The Opening” after delivering a training session, I thought I would be a good idea to do an observation of the lunchtime to gauge how introducing hundreds of loose parts into the environment might work… After approximately 15 seconds of standing on the playground a girl and boy approached me and asked me what I was doing….. They then announced that it was probably best for them to give me a guided tour of their playground and playing field.  As we all moved around the space they pointed out what features they enjoyed and the types of games they liked to play. They seemed really excited about their new roles as tour guides, which they took very seriously and in the knowledge that they had the complete attention of the ‘new person in our playground’.  I felt quite honoured that they were giving up their free time to show me their playground and enjoyed the attention I was receiving.  As the tour progressed I was also invited to play various different types games they liked playing and asked if I knew any games…. And so on and so on…..then the whistle went and that was the end of playtime.  Observation fail!

On the opening day, I had a small briefing with the lunchtime staff, where I tried to inspire confidence and excitement within the team… which was difficult in the circumstances… but I think it went well and everyone seemed excited about the prospect.  Just before the children arrived on the playground we removed all the large loose parts from the Scrapstore PlayPod leaving the floor clear so children could run into the structure.  Not knowing what was about to happen created some a range of feelings for me at this point.. an unusual mixture of giddy excitement, dread of something going wrong leading to anticipation/nervousness of being the one responsible or the notion of being dramatically under whelmed.

I heard the children before I saw them then in what seemed like a stampede about 100 children ran past me with obvious excitement, shouting and screaming. Some children appeared to be clutching almost waving pieces of paper, which I later learned were design plans for the structures they wanted to build!  The effect for the first few minutes was quite mesmerising, almost unbelievable… More and more children kept streaming from the lunch hall and then proceeded to literally clear every item of “scrap” out of the structure onto the field with the adults, (myself included)… just stood still almost rooted to the spot watching in amazement. Quite redundant.

To the observer it looked like 210 children had just unwrapped their presents on Christmas Day in the playground, a powerful assault on the senses….lots of bright colours, movement in every direction and plenty more noise.  It was chaotic to observe in the first instance.  Once the ‘Great Scrap Rush’ subsided the play morphed into a hive of frenzied building activity.  Large and small groups of children were making dens, offices, hammocks and swings building off anything and everything available to them. There was small groups combating with cardboard tubes, others pulling children around in crates and banging drums or making as much noise with scrap as possible.  As all of this unfolded I started to relax and then found myself smiling… The children weren’t enjoying this, they were loving it, which was an enjoyable spectacle to observe.

The lunch time was over as quick as it started. I wasn’t sure how all the stuff was going to fit back inside the box…but the children collaborated brilliantly.  As the playground became clean and silent again I had an epiphany:

Maybe I am a loose part?

Just yesterday, I had been the new and exciting loose part/person, bringing novelty and interest into the environment.

Today not one child spoke to me or even seemed to acknowledge me being there.. It was like I had become invisible or hidden from sight.  Because of the loose parts I had become redundant to the children’s play needs. 

What if I am a loose part?

Whether I am a loose part or not… what this experience demonstrated to me was the super powers loose parts possess.  They are an amazing enabler in play and offer potential to build, create, transform, destroy, build resilience, learn about, stimulate imagination, support group collaboration and build friendships.  

The description ‘loose parts’ was first explained by Simon Nicholson in 1971. His theory was based on the idea that children will play more imaginatively and flexibly with loose parts that are lying around than specifically designed play equipment.

‘In any environment both the degree of inventiveness and creativity, and the possibility of discovery, are directly proportional to the number and kind of variables in it.’

*The Scrapstore PlayPod introduces loose parts into school playgrounds to transform playtimes.    
                  

Here is another account from a playwork trainer of his observations of how loose parts play can make a significant impact on children’s approaches to play.
Further Reading

Theory of Loose Parts, An important principle for design methodology: Simon Nicholson 1972, Vol. 4, No. 2,

Play & Playwork, 101 stories of Children Playing: Fraser Brown 2014

The Value of Play: Perry Else 2009

You can also read our other blog posts in this series:
What is Play?, The Importance of Play, The Play Cycle, My Sofa: Enabling Environments, Easy Rider: Risk and Play, Children and Schemas, Visual Play Audit Service

Scrapstore Play Services offers a range of playwork training courses if you would like to find out more about playwork training and loose parts play in schools.
Phone us on 0117 9143002

Visual Play Audit Service

 

Assessing school playgrounds for play value

By Daniel Rees-Jones

There is a growing body of evidence that suggests that the outdoor play space is playing an increasingly important role on children’s development and making children happy with numerous benefits. 

Play helps boost children's language development, problem solving, risk management and independent learning skills, a study reaffirms.  The report, for the Children's Play Policy Forum, found play improved children's physical and mental health, as well as their emotional well-being.  It also found playtime in the school playground could enhance academic skills and attitudes and behaviour.

Source: The Play Return: Areview of the wider impact of play initiatives Gill. T 2014

Whilst the notion of designing play spaces is an exciting prospect it does require knowledge, consideration and sensitivity to the environment as well as a sympathetic awareness of the users.  The Play Team at Children’s Scrapstore have spent the last five years supporting schools with their play, making suggestions about logistics and grounds development. From our observations, schools that have invested in increasing children’s choices for play, seems to have profound effects on how happy children are in school which then in turn has multiple benefits for the entire school community.  

Schools historically tend to develop the play space as and when monies become available which is usually in little pots now and then, which results in playgrounds that are quite piece meal and lack functionality for purpose.  The missing link is a general overview of the entire space both physically and logistically in terms of staff management, which in turn creates stagnant and poor play environments, despite the best intentions. 

The visual play audit service has stemmed from the acknowledgment that schools needed additional support and guidance in the planning and development of their playgrounds. The intention is to offer a non-bias service that helps schools assess the play value of their setting and support decisions in the development of their grounds; maximising on current resources and improving the quality of play opportunities and choices available.

Assessing the ‘play value’ of spaces has been developed by a small number of play theorists and practitioners within the UK over the last decade from a playwork perspective, although this has not permeated through to schools playgrounds.  Two widely accepted and acclaimed frameworks are:

Play Wales' The First Claim ... a framework for playwork quality assessment publication aims to enable playworkers, and any other adults with an interest in children's play, to analyse, by observation and reflection, the play environments they operate. It gives a framework to assess the quality of what is being provided and experienced. 

 

Simply Play is a simple, effective play value assessment which has been developed through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership between Sheffield Hallam University and Timberplay Ltd. The late Professor Perry Else course leader on the Children and Playwork Degree course wrote numerous published papers and has authored a book on “The Value of Play”.  He offered supervision on this project as well as having created the assessment for play value, “Maximising Play Value” on which Simply Play was based. By developing an assessment which focuses on the quality of the play value of a space the aim has been to put the primary purpose for developing play areas back at the heart of their development, namely play. 

 

 

In the initial development of the auditing service we adopted the methodologies above as our benchmark which overall worked well, but after a doing a few assessments during school lunchtimes on reflection we discovered that:

• Flow and playful journey are critically important additions we needed to add into the assessment criteria.
• Larger open spaces needed to be assessed with multi use considerations in mind including curriculum needs such as P.E. or school events.
• Schools commonly have restrictions on the ways that the play spaces can be used, such as rotas for equipment and rules for play.  
• The presentation and feedback of the audit needed to be clear and concise, particularly when considering recommendations.
• The assessments seemed to work best in small team collaborations with time for group reflection which usually required a detailed mapping exercise.

After two years of development we have developed a comprehensive auditing service adapting existing assessment models that enables schools to make considered choices about the development of their school grounds.

The Visual Play Audit Service uses a range of different playground methodologies to assess the ‘play value’ of school playgrounds and other play spaces 

The process involves a mapping exercise identifying what types of play are currently catered for and what the environment affords, as well as identifying what types of play or aspects of environment are missing.  The A3 report outlines possible improvements that could be made to the whole environment that looks at extending the range of choices available to all the children as well as amendments to logistics that would improve the play on offer, using a combination of photographs and text.
We recognize that within the school community there are many user groups so we have worked hard in presenting this document in an easy to understand pictographic format which can be accessed by a wide range of user groups, to support any proposed changes.

“This has been incredibly useful process for us to do, we now understand how to utilise our play space much more effectively and the visual style of the report really brings it to life.”  Head Teacher

The service essentially enables schools to highlight the key components of a good outdoor play environment and suggests how to enhance it, as well as offer a variety of informed, non-bias choices regarding future investments to support children’s play and learning. 

“It gave me a way in to change the outdoor space and get the other stakeholders on board.  By demonstrating the ideas visually through the report I was able to get money and support from the Friends of Whitehall and the School Governors.”  ~ Deputy Head "This audit has really helped us to understand how to go about supporting the play in our school, enabling us to make informed choices for future developments.” ~ Head Teacher Whitehall Primary

 

If you are interested in finding out more about playground development  please contact Scrapstore Play Services or phone 0117 914 3002