Play Beyond Brexit - Pièces détachées pionniers de France

November 2016: Feeling proud….Dan Rees-Jones and Kirsty Wilson take a selfie outside the Boite a Jouer in Ecole Wurtz. 

On a dark and stormy afternoon in 2013 Jean Marc and Emma left France behind and flew into the Bristol mist at Children’s Scrapstore on a fact finding mission….. They wanted to understand more about the process of introducing loose part play into primary schools and wanted to spend a week observing and questioning us to learn more about the idea of replicating Scrapstore PlayPods back home.  

It so happened I was training some playworkers that Monday evening so we all headed over together to the training venue discussing PlayPods

on the way.  Both Jean Marc and Emma spoke good English but I wasn’t too sure how much they would get from this observation…. I do tend to get a bit over excited when I’m training, jump around a lot, and use a lot of anecdotes and stories to support concepts and theories, which may get lost in translation, I feared.   On the way back I asked them how they found it.  Emma simply said:
“you speak very quickly”

Over the course of the week they worked tirelessly with our team…. observing Scrapstore PlayPods in action, training sessions in schools and asked a lot of questions about virtually everything loose part related. Initially it felt strange to be “watched on the job” for a week but as we waved them off on Friday we had grown accustomed to it enjoying the process. We all wondered what would come of this trip and whether we would see them ever again?
We didn't have to wait long! Incredibly within 6 months Jean Marc and Emma had not only formed a association called Jouer Pour Vivre but had successfully crowd funded for a pilot of Boite a Jouer (aka PlayPods)  in two primary schools, one in Die, Emma's home town and the other in Paris in a school called Virtruve.  The videos below show a computer generated idea of a Boite a Jouer and different people from Vitruve discussing what impact the Boite a Jouer has had on their school.

A 3D representation of a Boite a Jouer

Evaluation of Boite a Jouer in Vitruve

Both of these pilots were incredibly successful for the children’s play and learning elements about how this project may work within a French context.  It provided a catalyst for a lot of interest from parents, practitioners and organisations alike all seeing the brilliant potential of loose parts play in schools. Jouer Pour Vivre were keen to explore this further and went on from here to draft a bid for an Erasmus+ project with a large organisation called La Ligue based in Paris and Encis based in Spain to pilot loose parts play in primary schools and after school clubs.  We were thrilled when Jouer Pour Vivre asked Scrapstore Play Services to become the knowledge transfer partner and agreed eagerly.  The bid was successful and after a slightly delayed start we all embarked on a two year Erasmus + Project introducing loose parts play into schools in France and Spain.  As well as working in two countries, the project involved two research partners University 13 Experice and Ferria Guardia who intended to do a scientific synthesis of its implementation recording the changes in the way children played with the loose parts and responded to it.
The Erasmus + project officially started in February 2015 with all the project partners meeting at Bristol Children’s Scrapstore.  It was incredible to consider how the idea and concept had progressed so far so quickly.

May 2015: Erasmus Partners at First Transnational meeting at Children’s Scrapstore Bristol

Scrapstore Play Services involvement was mainly based at the beginning of the project.  To begin with we visited all the potential sites identified for the pilots of the loose parts. In France this involved visiting two primary schools and a leisure centre (after school provision), In Spain this consisted of one nursery to measure the play value.  The process involves assessing school playgrounds adapting existing assessment models that enables schools to make considered choices about the development of their school grounds.
After our site visits we created a baseline report: Diagnosis of Play Settings

July 2015: Dan Rees-Jones, Kirsty Wilson & Debbie Woods in Manresa, Spain visiting the Encis Office after a site visit to La Lluna assessing play value.

Once sites had been agreed and we had supported with the collection and suitability of the loose parts we then hosted a five day training event in Paris focussing on concepts and theories for supporting play and playwork.  This was interesting as the term playwork or playworker doesn’t really exist in Spain or France so it was like teaching an additional new language on top of the three languages already being spoken! It contained similar elements of the training for lunchtime staff we deliver in the UK, which the partners all found useful for the development of the project and supporting the notion of playwork in France and Spain.

October 2015: Dan Rees-Jones delivering training on Risk Benefit Assessment within a public park shortly before being properly ‘told off’ by The Guardian of the Park for introducing loose parts!

In May 2016 after all the necessary planning, gathering of loose parts, training and shed building the PlayPods or loose parts sheds opened in the respective schools and nursery.  We went to visit Ecole Wurtz (a primary school for 250 children ) in Paris twice after Boite a Jouer opened.  Even though I have been opening PlayPods for the last seven years I wasn’t quite sure what to expect but on arrival to the playground, I may as well have been in the UK ….it looked like a PlayPod, sounded like a PlayPod and even smelled like PlayPod!

November 2016: Feeling proud….Dan Rees-Jones and Kirsty Wilson take a selfie outside the Boite a Jouer in Ecole Wurtz. 

I felt strangely proud at this moment on the playground…. the notion of a simple idea being  replicated so seamlessly  in another place and context.  Even though I couldn’t take credit for the work…. Just watching the chaotic joy and noise that loose parts was bringing to this school was brilliant! The children loved it and even the staff loved it! Valerie the lead animateur for came up to us and said.

“ We used to dread opening the

Boite a Jouer but now we dread

not opening it!”

It was fascinating and reassuring to see how the project had so many similarities and successes to the English model. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the partners for their contributions and success in delivering this exciting project and hope that these positive early steps will set the foundations for more children to experience high quality play opportunities in schools across Europe.  Well done all!

The final report looks at the findings from the synthesis from both countries and makes for an interesting read: Findings Report

As the project came to a close Jouer Pour Vivre surprised us yet again.. moving up a gear by winning a government contract to deliver no less than ten Boites a Jouer in Paris over the next two years!

I’m not quite sure what the next few years will bring to loose parts play in Europe….but if the last few are anything to go by its definitely going places!

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