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TRANSCRIPT
For everyone interested in play for children and young For everyone interested in play for children and young
people aged 0people aged 0--19 years19 years
TRAINING ● EVENTS ● RESEARCH ● PLAY IDEAS ● COMMUNITY
Get Ready for Awesome
Autumn! Play Ideas inside
The Dragon of
Magdalen Woods..
Find out more...
Playwork in Action:
With Banbury’s Lets Play Project
Play dates for October Half
Term…
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Welcome to our Inspiring Play
Newsletter for Autumn 2015
‘It has been another busy Summer for OPA with our 7 Play and Ac-tivity Days being delivered Oxfordshire. Another 11,500 people at-
tended this years events taking our total attendance figures for
the last 4 years up over the 65,000 mark!!
Plans are now underway confirming locations for our 2016 events,
for the first time ever local Communities were asked to ‘apply’ to host an event in 2016 and we have received a great response. We
will confirm the chosen locations in October 2015.
We are delighted to announce that our pilot ‘Playful Woodlands’ project situated at Magdalen Wood in Wood Farm in Oxford has
been nominated for a prestigious Oxford Preservation Trust award,
this a great recognition for an excellent project led and driven by
our own Jane Gallagher.
Our Community PLAYback project (making Community Spaces More
Playful) continues to gather momentum, we delivered an event on
Carterton Market Square in July and in October half term we will
deliver further events in Florence Park and Taphouse Avenue in
Witney. Initial planning is also underway for further events in Chip-
ping Norton and Wantage / Grove.
We are also searching for some new Trustees to join our Manage-
ment Board, please contact us for further details.
Martin, OPA
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Keep in touch with news and
events.
Visit our website at:
www.oxonplay.org.uk
Like us on Facebook
www.facebook.com/oxonplay
Follow us on twitter
@oxonplay
OPA’s Mission is to champion and to support the rights of all
children to have access to high
quality, inclusive play opportu-
nities to improve their physical,
mental and spiritual wellbeing.
Newsletter is produced by Oxfordshire Play Association.
For further information about Inspiring Play or any other
aspect of play and playwork, please contact
Oxfordshire
Play Association:
01865 779 474 or e mail: [email protected]
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This is my favourite time of the year to send
our Play Promotion Officer, Julia a short re-
port and update from OPA Training Depart-
ment. During the six weeks of summer I
am fortunate to be able to observe and as-
sess learners whilst facilitating play at their
Holiday Play Schemes and on occasions at
OPA’s Play Days. I get to see children and young people throughout Oxfordshire, en-
gaging in a wide range of play based activi-
ties as well as Free Play, where the children
and young people are involved in choosing
and adapting ‘Loose Parts’ through which they develop. I even got to visit some local
parks with one group where the wide open
space and the fixed equipment was well uti-
lised by both the Playworkers and the chil-
dren/young people.
Thank you to my wonderful level 2 and 3
learners who invited me to their schemes
and to their Play Leaders for their huge wel-
come and kind hospitality (lots of tea and
biscuits).
I managed to take some photographs of our
recent Take 5 for Play course, which took
place at White Horse Leisure Centre
in Abindon over a two day period. Amy
French, one of the Play Scheme coordina-
tors, liaised closely with our Training Centre
to organise and host the training. Five of
her summer scheme playworkers attended
alongside our own Play Promotion Officer.
After two days of PLAY they got a little
messy and designed ‘Happy Harriet’
Training News and Updates…..
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If you are interested in a career in Play Work or if you or members of your
team would like to further your professional development, please get in
touch for further information.
Please visit our website www.oxonplay.org.uk to find out more or
contact OPA Training Officer, Brid Muldoon [email protected]
“Learning skills such as observation and reflections was immense-ly valuable and I truly believe this helped lead me to being graded
as an Outstanding Provider on my very first Ofsted inspection” - Childminder & Level 3 Diploma in Playwork learner.
“I now understand the importance of play as a holistic experience and how a child’s development is as individual as they are” - EIS
Worker & Level 2 Playwork Learner.
Upcoming Training Events
Take 5 for Play
Level 2 – Diploma in PLaywork
Level 3 – Diploma in Playwork
Level 3-Transition from Early Years to Playwork
Level 4/5 - Playwork
Bespoke, short training courses in Play and Playwork are
also available.
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Half Term Play Days……..
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Autumn Play Ideas for
Leaf Crunching Fun!
Roll your sleeves up, get your
wellies on and get outdoors!
Try gathering up as many leaves
as you can to make a super awe-
some leaf pile (or mountain!)—great fun for jumping and rolling
in!
With the weather getting wetter this
is the perfect time to make the most
of all that mud and get building mud
pies in a mud kitchen, or indeed cre-
ating anything else muddy that takes
your fancy! For lots of practical tips
and play ideas for building a mud
kitchen visit www.muddyfaces.co.uk
Visit your local Woodlands! We all know Autumn is a beautiful
time of year to get out and visit the local woods, and yet with
such busy lives all too often this stunning season can quickly
pass us by. Children love hunting for mini beasts and the woods
(or the back garden!) are a per-
fect place to do it, or why not
collect leaves and twigs to make
beautiful pictures with when
you get home. For lots of wood-
land fun ideas and free activity
sheets visit
www.naturetrust.org.uk/
naturedetectives
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Cherwell District Council’s Rec-
reation & Sport Activators
have launched a brand new ini-
tiative for 8 -16 year olds which
challenges young people to beat
the Activator at different skills
and sports throughout the year!
“Beat the Activator” was launched at the Banbury &
Bicester Play Day events and
sets a new challenge every
month. It couldn’t be simpler to get involved, come along to one
of the Activator free sessions
taking place across the Cherwell
District in parks and in youth
club settings where you can get
the latest challenge flyer and get
involved in a fun session of
games and alternativesports,
check out
www.cherwellyouth.co.uk for
their latest timetable.
Every month there is prize to be
won; all you have to do is log
your challenge result online
www.cherwell.gov.uk/young
people where everyone who
takes part gets entered into the
prize draw which is drawn on the
last day of every month.
For more information about the
Recreation & Sport Activator ini-
tiative please contact
Get involved today and take the
challenge!
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Evidence and Research
Early Academic Training Produces
Long Term Harm:
Psychology Today
Full report available at:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/freedom-
learn/201505/early-academic-training-produces-
long-term-harm
Risky Outdoor Play Positively Impacts Children’s Health: UBC Study by Katherine Came and Mariana
Brussoni.
Full report available at:
http://news.ubc.ca/2015/06/09/
risky-outdoor-play-positively-
impacts-childrens-health-ubc-
study/
The Decline of Play in Pre Schooler’s and the Rise in Sensory Issues by Angela Hanscom.
Full report available at:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-
sheet/wp/2015/09/01/the-decline-of-play-in-
preschoolers-and-the-rise-in-sensory-issues/
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News Update..
The Dragon of Magdalen Woods!
The first ‘Playful Woodland’ in Oxfordshire has been short listed for an award with the Oxfordshire Preservation Trust, under the
category of ‘Landscape Enchancement’.
OPA initiated the project, which aims to add hidden, natural,
playful items to public woodlands, thus encouraging children and
familes to explore and play together. OPA bought in partners
Going Wild, The Nature Effect, The National Trust and a local
sculptor Stuart Turner.
The first woodland play space is a 150 metre long dragon in
Magdalen Wood West off of Atykyns Road, Woodfarm, Oxford.
Stuart explains, “the dragon winds its way through the woods, and will provide endless amounts of fun and adventure for all
ages for generations to come.”
The natural play space has also caught the attention of the
school of architecture at Oxford Brookes University. They con-
tacted OPA and the steering group, and are now working with
students in the woods to create natural temporary structures,
inspired by the dragon.
For further information please contact OPA on 01854 779474 or
e mail [email protected]
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Why not take a trip to Magdalen
Woods and discover the dragon for
yourself?!
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PLAY IN THE COMMUNITY
The Let’s Play Project
Banbury
I’m a play worker at the Let’s Play Project. The project supports young
people with disabilities from aged 5 –
18. Being a play worker is fantas-
tic and supports, enables young
people to play, in any way, shape
or form in which way they choose
to.
During the summer holidays we took a
group of young people to Avon Dasset
to fly kites, build dens and make camp
fires. The young people searched for
the woods and came across a lovely
spot to build a den, straight away they
had the enthusiasm and enjoyment in
their eyes and collected branches, tree
trunks, little sticks, big sticks and
pilled them up. Together all the young
people and the play workers put to-
gether the sticks and branches to form
a den that could and would be used
for many games later in the day. One
young person had a rest inside the
den and said “this is beautiful” mo-ments like that really make me under-
stand why play is so important in chil-
dren’s lives.
The day was spent running in and out
the trees, up and down the hills being
free and being able to use the den as
a jail for cops and robbers made the
young people laugh that little bit more
when all of the adults were stuck.
Camp fires were next everyone was
getting a bit hungry, so time for some
toasted marshmallows. Richard our
campfire expert explained to the
young people the different layers of
sticks and how to place them, he even
used flint and steal to get the fire
started. Risky play is so vital to all
children and little things like making a
den and camp fires can help them to
learn and develop through play. I per-
sonally didn’t enjoy fire play as an adult I was scared that playing with
fire would be too risky however after
this day I was inspired to encourage
children’s love of being outdoors and building dens.
To find out more about the work of the
Lets Play Project visit
www.letsplaybanbury.org
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Learning Through Outdoor Play Cherwell children enjoy outdoor Forest fun
Children in Cherwell can enjoy going back to their
roots and learning in the open air thanks to support
from Sanctuary Housing. Sanctuary has teamed up
with the Warriner Partnership of schools for an initi-
ative which is seeing pupils from ten local schools
enjoying the natural surroundings of the Warriner
School Farm. Pupils are taking part in a range of
exciting activities including den-building, outdoor
cooking, mud kitchens and nature walks.
Taking place every week throughout the school
year, the project is providing alternative education
for children, whatever the weather. Children are
being encouraged to respond to nature creatively,
building on their team working skills and develop-
ing a sense of environmental and health aware-
ness.
Kate Winstanley, Sanctuary’s neighbourhood part-
nerships manager, commented: “We are delighted
that our support has enabled children from the
Warriner Partnership of schools to experience for-
est schooling .. “The children will be using their
team working and problem solving skills within a
natural environment, with their participation poten-
tially resulting in life-long benefits.”
The Warriner partnership of schools consists of the
nine local primaries that make up the catchment in
the Bloxham area, as well as the Warriner Second-
ary School. Warriner School Farm is a 120-acre
organic farm, purpose built as part of The Warriner
School.
Sarah Reynolds, head teacher at Shenington Pri-
mary School, said: “Our children were delighted to
take part in this project. It has enabled them to
work with pupils from another school on a weekly
basis with shared values about teamwork, cooper-
ation and learning to show initiative.
“This was a great opportunity to benefit from the
possibilities at the Warriner School Farm. And we
look forward to working with the farm and Sanctu-
ary in the future.”
Bev James, forest school leader at the Warriner
School Farm, said: "We are thrilled to have been
able to extend our forest school provision in part-
nership with Sanctuary Housing. Our first two
groups have been a great success and it has been
wonderful to see the children’s progress in devel-
oping their practical and problem-solving skills, self
-confidence and independent thinking through ad-
venturous play.”
This is the first time the schools have been able to
take part in regular forest school activities, with the
aim of using the farmland and woodland at Warrin-
er School Farm. The funding from Sanctuary has
meant the schools have been able to purchase
equipment to enhance their play, including tarpau-
lin, ropes and hand drills.
This project was funded by Sanctuary Group’s Community Investment Fund, supporting pro-
jects which benefit Sanctuary residents and their
communities.
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Do you share our belief that PLAY is vital for the
lives of Children and Young People?
Help OPA to make Oxfordshire the most play-friendly county in Eng-
land. Become a ‘Friend of OPA’ – and support us to continue our
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