Inspiring
Play news from Oxfordshire Inspiration & ideas for play Information for playworkers N EW ! O nl i n e ve rs i on — p r i nt , re a d a nd e nj oy !
WEBSITE OFFER! OPA can help any non-profit organisation create a website for less than £300! It will be created in a few hours— and you will also be taught how to easily update it yourself! Contact Jane at OPA on 01865 779474 or email: jane.gallagher@oxonplay.org.uk
4 FREE Oxfordshire PLAYDAY Events! For children, young Wednesday people, families and 27th July childcarers. Wednesday Just come along to 3rd August the following 4 events for free fun, games and exciting play for all ages Thursday 4th August 0-18 years. Playday events are organised by groups of great local Saturday organisations. Contact OPA for 17th September more info—see bottom of page.
11-3pm
People's Park, Banbury
11-3pm
Garth Park, Bicester
10-3pm
Leys Recreation Ground, Witney
10-3pm
Hill End Centre, Farmoor, nr Oxford
OXFORDSHIRE PLAYING FIELDS ASSOCIATION NETWORKING EVENTS - 2011 This year Oxfordshire Playing Fields Association will be holding 4 free, informal networking events across the county, covering a range of topics faced by parishes managing a playing field and/or a playground and will provide everyone with a valuable opportunity to meet others doing the same work to exchange ideas and discuss concerns. Each attendee will receive a free goodie bag and will be entered into a draw to win a bag of play grade compost or bark. Refreshments provided. Dates are: Thursday 2nd June, Wendlebury Village Hall, 7–9pm Thursday 9th June, Grove Village Hall, Mervyn Shaw Meeting Room, 7-9pm Thursday 30th June, Carterton Town Hall and recently opened play area, 7-9pm Tuesday 5th July, Thame, Girl Guide HQ, Southern Road, 7-9pm
Contact Nicole O’Donnell, Tel: 01865 883488, Email: opfa@oxonrcc.org.uk
What’s the Oxfordshire Play Partnership (OPP)? newsletter is produced by Oxfordshire Play Association on behalf of the Oxfordshire Play Partnership, a group of organisations whose aim is to increase the amount and quality of play opportunities for children and young people aged approx 0-19 years across Oxfordshire. OPP creates and updates the Oxfordshire Play Strategy — this and lots of other OPP info is available on Oxfordshire Play Association’s website www.oxonplay.org.uk—see under ‘Play Resources’.
For further information about OPP, Inspiring Play or any aspect of play and playwork, contact Oxfordshire Play Association on 01865 779474; email: enquiries@oxonplay.org.uk. Full staff contact details are on the above website.
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New Website! Oxfordshire Outside is a network of organisations that make it easier for people in Oxfordshire to get outside. The website has been created and is managed by OPA. It includes lots of free downloads, such as the fantastic ‘walking maps’ of Oxfordshire, and links to lots of useful events and websites. You can find it here: www.oxfordshireoutside.org.uk. Other useful sites for play inspiration / info: www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/outofschoolchildcare (Oxfordshire County Council Childcare Development site) www.oxonplay.org.uk (OPA’s play-packed site) www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/parents (Oxfordshire Family Information Service, with info about childcare and play settings).
YOU! are cordially invited to the Oxfordshire Play Association
AGM and Lunch on Wed 13th July 12.30pm—AGM, 1.30pm—Lunch 2.30—4.00pm—Business Planning Meeting At Henmans, 5000 Oxford Business Park South, Oxford OX4 2BH RSVP to Martin Gillett, OPA Manager, 01865 779474 or email martin.gillett@oxonplay.org.uk.
HAVE YOUR OWN PLAY DAY!
...is coming to Oxford!
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Remember when children used to play in the street? Playing Out! is an organisation in Bristol that enables local people to close their streets for a few hours after school for play. Playing Out! have now received funding to bring the project to Oxfordshire, and they are working with OPA and members of Oxfordshire Play Partnership to make streets playful again with this successful project. For more information, contact OPA on 01865 779474 or email enquiries@oxonplay.org.uk or go to the Playing Out! website at www.playingout.net. Sunday street play is also in the news—Public Health Minister Anne Milton suggested it would help to revive outdoor play and tackle obesity. The Department of Health said it would be “something for local councils to consider.” 3
OXFORDSHIRE’S PLAYFUL COMMUNITIES — UPDATE Over £6,766 was given out to a total of 24 groups to run community play events in rural villages, and a total of 2,200 children and young people are expected to go along and enjoy the days. Thanks to everyone involved—we hope that many more local play events will be organised next year too!
Do you want to understand the Oxfordshire Family Information Service is producing a short guide to holiday childcare and playschemes for parents and carers (Holiday Playschemes Summer 2011). This briefly explains the different types of schemes and childcare, help available for paying for childcare, suggestions on how to choose playschemes and how to get lists of local schemes and other information. We are keen that these guides reach parents and carers to provide them with the information they need to make informed choices about childcare and to access any help available. To order copies call us on 08452 262636 or Email: fis.enquiries@oxfordshire.gov.uk Also see: www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/parents
Playwork Qualifications maze? Email Claire Hawkes at Oxfordshire County Council for a free copy of this useful A3 guide to playwork qualifications: claire.hawkes@oxfordshire.gov.uk Would you like to
text a donation to OPA? Now you can through Just Text Giving. This will help the OPA to continue developing play for all in Oxfordshire. Text ‘PLAY00’ and then the amount (up to a max of £10) to 70070 e.g. for a £5 donation, text ‘PLAY00 5’ to
70070.
GO4IT! IS FUNDING ALL TYPES OF PLAY Children and young people in Oxfordshire schools are continuing to benefit from GO4it! funding which allows them to take part in all kinds of new and exciting activities from sports to arts and crafts. One example of the fun to be had was at the Blenheim Palace Holiday Playscheme run by Oxford Active at Easter (see separate article). Appreciating how hard it is for some parents to know how to entertain their children on a tight budget in the holidays, The Isis Partnership is using its GO4it! funds to pay for Play Rangers to support over 5’s in the parks near to local Children’s Centres. This provides play opportunities for the children but also encourages parents and carers and gives them the confidence to engage more with their children. Thame Schools have introduced “Games Clubs” at lunchtimes for pupils, using the funding to buy a wide variety of board games which are proving hugely popular. Many of the children never get the chance to play these games at home and it is teaching them a wide variety of life skills – how to share, how to compete, but also how to cope if they don’t win. The games can be played indoors and outside and mixed age groups can get involved.
For further info about GO4it! Funding, contact: kate.bahu@oxfordshire.gov.uk
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Play England / Love Outdoor Play: Got five minutes? Help us map great places to play on our new app, part of the ‘Do Some Good’ app from Orange. You can tag places to play and tell us where's good (or not so good) to play. We’ll use the data collected to add to an Outdoor Play Map, launched later in the year. www.playengland.org.uk/loveoutdoorplay
Official Opening of Kingham Play Park Kingham is a small village near Chipping Norton, and its previous park had been closed for 18 months due to vandalism and dangerous equipment. Five years ago a group of locals came together and, calling themselves Kingham Youth, they decided to raise the £78,000 needed for a brand new play area. Children in the local area sent in designs, which were passed onto a landscape architect who designed the play area with the children’s designs in mind. Over the next few years, Kingham Youth fundraised and applied for grants. The main grant of £49,999.00 came from Community Spaces (part of the big Lottery fund) but other grants were also received from Oxfordshire County Council (Play Pot), Oxfordshire Grassroots, TOE, WODC, Kingham Parish Council and other individuals. On the 13th March Kingham Play Park had its official opening at last. It was great to see the play park finally being opened. It was opened by Alex James from Blur who did a great job calling on the children to go crazy which they did ... young and old!
New Group—Little Champions Rose Hill - Littlemore Children's Centre would like to warmly invite parents and carers of children age 0-5 years with additional needs and disabilities to attend our new informal group ‘Little Champions’, which runs on the 2nd Friday of each month from 9.30 to 11.30am. We provide a child-friendly venue where parents and carers can have a drink, chat and gather information while their children play. We provide a wide range of play activities including sensory play dough, ice sculptures, messy play as well as arts and crafts. There is also an outside play area, and our large sandpit is perfect for creating sculptures, sand castles and digging holes. If you would like further information please contact Karen Stansbie or Hafsa Akkas on 01865 716739. Email: karen.stansbie@oxfordshire.gov.uk or hafsa.akkas@oxfordshire.gov.uk Venue: Rose Hill – Littlemore Children’s Centre, The Oval, Rose Hill, Oxford, OX4 4UY Email: reception.sure-start@oxfordshire.gov.uk Web: www.rosehill-littlemore.childrencentre.org
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Inspiring
Case Study: Playing with Guns Westfield Play Club have changed their ‘zero tolerance’ approach to children playing with guns. In the past, no toy guns, weapons or weapon-like objects were allowed to be brought in or made within the setting. The playworkers had believed very firmly that allowing the children to play with guns would increase the amount of violent, negative play, and that by banning weapon play, the children’s play would be ‘channelled’ into more positive activities. Playworker Gary explains: “Before we banned guns, some of the children (mainly boys but some girls as well) would spend the whole time shooting, killing, dying, and so on. We tried to tempt them to try other play activities, but they weren’t interested. Then one day one of the smaller children got hurt in the boisterous play, and we decided to ban all play with guns or other weapons. “Things worked out well for most of the children. They were not really bothered that they were not able to play with guns. But there were a few children who found it very difficult to adapt. Even after four months, you could tell that they still wanted to play fight. Their behaviour, if anything, had actually got worse since the gun ban. They were constantly getting into trouble with the other children, or else wandered around aimlessly. The playworkers agreed to do some observations, to see why their behaviour was so negative. “The main observation was that the children were unhappy, and that their natural play direction was being distorted by our weapon rules. Talking to them unveiled the fact that they had a strong ‘drive’ to play with weapons. We discussed and discussed the matter at our team meetings, and with the parents and carers. We read the book We Don’t Play with Guns Here by Penny Holland. This in particular gave us the confidence to make the decision to lift our outright ban on guns. “The first few weeks were pretty chaotic, to be honest. Everyone wanted to play with guns and swords! More than once, we thought we had done the wrong thing. But then a change happened. Most of the children lost interest after the initial excitement, and went back to doing other things. The original group of children who had shown such interest in playing with weapons were like different children. Their eyes shone with delight, and they interacted very playfully.
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“Initially we applied a few rules to the weapon play. These included not shooting at people (only at objects) and no frightening children who were not playing your game. These rules became more relaxed as we all saw that children were able to contextualise the play – they knew it was play and not real. We make sure that we discuss issues such as ‘hurting others’ and ‘death’ with the children, and often the children come to us for a chat and some ‘time out’ from the onslaught. “I would say it is worth thinking about relaxing attitudes to gun play. We did it because we trust children to decide on the direction they take their own play.” From the book ‘New Playwork’ by Annie Davy and Jane Gallagher, published by Cengage.
Consulting children It is important we consult children when running a club. When children are consulted they feel more involved and valued, and you will be better placed to meet their needs. Julie from Church Cowley St James after school club has consulted children using a simple questionnaire recently. This is what Julie said: “First I made a basic sheet with the questions. I particularly wanted to know about, what activities are most popular, what new activities the children would like, and are we including all our children. I started by talking to the children about the sheet and the questions. The older children were very quick to fill in the sheet, and gave very positive feedback, but with the younger ones we sat with them and asked them the questions. We also let them tick or colour the answers they wanted. I found it really helpful. I realized we need to split the space between the children and the activities they want to do, and maybe have a rota for the activities. The girls want a dancing area whereas the boys want to be outside to play football more, but then the younger children want a role play area. Also a lot of children want to do cooking and more crafts. The process was easy because it was a tick-based answer, but some of the older children did write comments on theirs. I will use this information to update the equipment and when planning the activities. I have already spoken to the other members of the team for their ideas about how to make the changes. The main point was that all the children were happy with the club, and felt included in making changes. Unfortunately, I don't think I will be able to provide the swimming pool in the playground, which one young girl asked for! I hope this inspires more playworkers to consult children. 7
Info from Brid Muldoon, OPA Training Officer As we move towards the summer term, all NVQ & QCF assessors are jumping for joy as we will have fantastic opportunities to observe so many play types in a variety of play spaces during the summer playschemes. Doing an all-day observation of play is an assessor’s dream, where play theory and practice can be assessed through indoor and outdoor play with opportunities for development of risk available to all the children & young people. OPA are currently delivering the following playwork qualifications: • QCF levels 2 & 3 in Playwork • Transitional Award Level 3 (to Playwork from Early Years) OPA also offer the following play-related short courses and training sessions: • Take 5 in Play—will take place in June or July 2011 (call OPA for dates and venue) • Lots of short training sessions are available on a wide variety of subjects, including Promoting Positive Behaviour, Managing a Playwork Setting, Arts & Crafts and Magic Potions! Look out for the new training programme for September—contact us for a copy. OPA training includes fun ideas If you are interested in any of the above courses and you would like further information, please visit our website www.oxonplay.org.uk or contact Brid, OPA Training Officer on 01865 779474 or email: trainingofficer@oxonplay.org.uk.
We are happy to offer help and advice around any play and playwork training query you may have, and give you the latest updates.
Step into Training - New Programme Great news! Despite reductions in funding, training for those working in playwork, early years and childcare, including those managing settings such as committee members, will continue to be available. The new programme, for courses running during Autumn 2011, will be available for online booking at www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/stepintotraining. In order that more money goes directly into providing courses, a book detailing the programme will no longer be published, only available online. Don't forget to make sure your setting takes advantage of some great, and free, training. 8
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Mobile Phone Policy Does your club have a mobile phone policy? If not, but you’d like ideas about what to include, have a look at the new sample policy on the Childcare Development webpages: www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/outofschoolchildcare. Please look under ‘Running a club’ / ‘Sample policies’. Mobile phones in childcare settings hit the headlines when a childcare worker, part of an internet paedophile ring, was convicted of sexually abusing children in a Plymouth nursery. The Plymouth Safeguarding Children Board’s summary of events, published last year, is available at: Serious Case Review Overview Report Executive Summary in respect of Nursery Z.
First Aid Training Does your club have a playworker or playleader with a current paediatric first aid certificate at every session? If not, you need to put that right – and fast! If your breakfast club, after-school club or playscheme is managed by an Oxfordshire County Council school, please note that the council now has an agreement with St John Ambulance, so there is a discount on the cost of courses. Individuals can book onto courses advertised by St John Ambulance, or schools can request on-site training for a group of 12 staff. (Remember that schools themselves need staff trained in paediatric first aid to meet EYFS requirements.) Courses must be booked via the county council’s Learning and Development Team, so please contact them for further details on 01865 797123 / LandD.sharedservices@oxfordshire.gov.uk.
Inclusion Support Scheme Funding – Good News! We’re very pleased to tell you that we have Inclusion Support Scheme funding for another year. Oxfordshire County Council offers grants to promote inclusion and remove the barriers to play, childcare and leisure for disabled children and young people. They are available for children and young people from birth to under 19 years of age with impairments, or emotional, behavioural or learning difficulties, who would otherwise be unable to take part, or unable to gain maximum enjoyment from the provision. Is there someone already in your after-school club or holiday playscheme who could benefit? The application forms and criteria have recently been updated, so please ask your Childcare Development Officer for new documents before you next make an application. The new forms are dated May 2011. Ring 01865 323772 if you need a Childcare Development Officer’s contact details. The scheme can pay for additional staff hours, fees, training, equipment or, in some particular circumstances, transport. A maximum of £500 can be granted for a child / young person aged 5 to under 19 per financial year. Childcare, play and leisure providers who receive a grant are expected to attend disability equality training. We also ask applicants to complete a simple review form. If you want to apply for funding for a child under five, please contact the Early Years Special Educational Needs Advisory Teams on 01865 456722 (Central Area of Oxfordshire) / 01865 816663 (North Area) / 01865 323556 (Southern Area). There is a limit of £250 for children under five. 10
Increases in National Minimum Wage The Government has announced that, with effect from 1st October 2011, National Minimum Wage rates will increase from: - £5.93 to £6.08 an hour for workers aged 21 and over; - £4.92 to £4.98 an hour for workers aged 18 to 20; and - £3.64 to £3.68 an hour for workers aged 16 to 17. Apprentices will also see an increase in their minimum wage from £2.50 to £2.60 an hour More information on the National Minimum Wage can be found at http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/ Employment/Employees/TheNationalMinimumWage/index.htm
Is there enough Childcare in Oxfordshire? Oxfordshire County Council has just published its latest assessment of childcare in the county, providing the latest data on childcare places and population, and also the views of parents. The main messages are that the amount of childcare countywide is healthy and that parents are generally happy with the provision available. They do feel that there are limited choices (which may link to low awareness of information services). The report shows some areas for development, including some localised childcare gaps, further improvements needed for disabled children and limited options for the over 12’s. In addition, the survey shows that affordability continues to be an issue for around two fifths of families. Flexibility is a related concern – families wish to have varying patterns of childcare without having to pay for unused sessions. Area childcare development teams are working with partners to address local gaps and will continue to support providers in balancing flexibility and sustainability in their business plans. In addition, countywide strategies aim to improve parents’ access to childcare information services. You can access the summary and details reports at www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/ childcaresufficiencyassessment. For further information contact Fergus Campbell, Childcare Development Manager via fergus.campbell@oxfordshire.gov.uk or 01865 815102.
Help with Childcare Costs – Funding now Available The Oxfordshire ‘Help with Childcare Cost’ Fund (HWCC) is short term funding to support families with the cost of childcare, where: • this is a significant barrier for those wishing take up work • this is a significant barrier for those wishing to do learning or training that leads to work • other funding to support childcare costs is not available Help with Childcare Costs (HWCC) can provide continuity of childcare to cover short term gaps between jobs. For instance, if a parent is unfortunately made redundant then HWCC may be able to cover the cost of out of school childcare for up to 1 term (6 to 8 weeks), which will hopefully provide a breathing space for a new job to be found. The 2011/12 fund is now open for applications to fund childcare to be taken by 31st March 2012. The fund is able to support families where childcare is required after March but applications can only be considered if it is clear that there is matched funding—i.e. applicant's resources or other funding streams, which would enable the applicant’s plans to be completed. For more information, including detailed guidance and an application form, see – www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/helpwithchildcarecosts It is important that applications are completed thoroughly, following the instructions on the application form. Assessment is based on the application only. 11
The Value of Volunteering I’m Dawn Williams, a Childcare Development Officer for Oxford. I just have to share some wonderful work that I came across when doing my regular visits to after school clubs and holiday playschemes. In the Easter holidays I visited Oxford’s KIDACTIVE and I was so pleased to see young volunteers getting an opportunity to work with children. KIDACTIVE provide childcare at different venues in Oxford, one being the Oxsrad Sports Centre. They provide activity clubs all year round that include an after school club, and holiday clubs called ‘Play & Create’, ‘Sports’ and ‘Go Wild’ which includes camping! Paul Tucker founded KIDACTIVE in 2007 with the aim to provide quality childcare. The KIDACTIVE team are well-qualified, experienced, caring and committed to providing fun for primary-aged children. KIDACTIVE is keen to offer volunteering opportunities to 6th Formers. Jay Martinez and Claire Wiseman, who are currently studying A Level Sport at Cherwell School in Oxford, started volunteering at KIDACTIVE in 2011. Both Claire and Jay are keen sportspeople, basketball in particular. During the Easter holidays both did a fantastic job in introducing this sports activity to the children and basketball has now become a popular choice of sports activity for children at KIDACTIVE. This volunteering opportunity has proved to be a pathway for both Jay and Claire to become employees of KIDACTIVE. Another person who volunteers at KIDACTIVE is Claire Merritt. Claire has been a service user of Oxsrad Sports Centre for many years, and she now volunteers at the centre which caters for children and adults with physical and learning disabilities. Claire now volunteers regularly at KIDACTIVE holiday clubs and has thrived with confidence and enjoys working with the younger children on arts and crafts activities. Anyone can volunteer and volunteering can lead to a job and lots of play opportunities! But please make sure that, like KIDACTIVE, all volunteers are CRB checked and follow all safeguarding procedures.
Southern Area Out-of-School Network Meeting
Objects Dart Puppeteers (www.objectsdart.info) came to three out-of-school network evenings this spring. Around seventy playworkers got together for supper, a chat, a puppet show and to make their own puppets with hands, card and other bits and bobs. Rabbits, trolls, spiders and a variety of literary characters entertained us all. Thanks to Badgemore, Caldecott and Shellingford after school clubs for hosting these events. If your out-of-school club would like to host a network evening (it won’t cost you anything!), or you have an idea for future events, please contact your Childcare Development Officer. Can you see what it is yet? 12
The Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) Review In March 2011, Dame Clare Tickell set out her recommendations to Government on the EYFS. Summary of the 46 recommendations:
• A single framework for all providers – so the EYFS is here to stay! • The EYFS needs to be reduced, simplified and written in plain English • The 6 areas of learning to be replaced with 7 areas (3 prime areas: communication & • • • •
• • • •
language; personal, social & emotional development; physical development . Four other areas: literacy, mathematics, expressive arts & design, understanding the world) The 69 Early Learning Goals should be reduced to 17 There should be a child development check for children between 24 and 36 months of age. A summary of the check should be included in the 'red book', which all parents are given alongside their child's health records A graduate-led workforce should continue to be an aspiration Inspections should recognise the characteristics of different settings (e.g. “those who only support children for limited times in the day or specific parts of the year”) SkillsActive playwork level 2 award should be recognised as a relevant qualification for holiday providers Parents and carers should be provided with a brief, simple explanation of what the EYFS is and what they can expect Mobile phones do not need to be banned in nurseries EYFS should include clear guidance about the amount of paperwork that should be kept in relation to risk assessments. Practitioners should be able to demonstrate the ways that they are managing outings to minimise risk, instead of completing paperwork about this.
What this means for the playwork sector Tickell acknowledged that the playwork sector felt that the EYFS approaches to supporting children conflicted with the playwork ethos. However requests that playwork settings should be exempt from the learning and development requirements have not been adopted. Remember that it’s unlikely that an after school club or holiday playscheme is the primary care setting (the school is), so you are not responsible for completing the EYFS assessments / profiles. The Tickell report suggests that the EYFS be delivered flexibly and Ofsted inspections recognise the different characteristics of playwork, which means if a setting is working to the Playwork Principles they should be able to meet the EYFS requirements through their daily practice. Further information http://www.education.gov.uk/tickellreview http://www.ofsted.gov.uk/Ofsted-home/Forms-and-guidance/Browse-all-by/Other/General/ Factsheet-childcare-Regulating-play-based-provision There will be a consultation over the summer with a final document published late this year which will lead to any changes in legislation in 2012. 13
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Letter from ...
Hello everyone, There are plenty of other things of interest this month, namely:
The Oxfordshire Scrapstore
NEW STOCK We'll be swapping with a bunch of other scrapstores , so look out for lots of wonderful new things in the store. We'll try to get some photos up on the gallery on our website as soon as we can. BAGS OF SCRAP Our standard unit of measurement, the carrier bag, has been changing shape, size and colour over the years, but we've now run out of the lovely Raymond Blanc bags, so we're back to smaller supermarket carrier bags. Our prices haven't gone up over the last five years, so maybe this is our way of yielding to inflationary pressures. Feel free to bring along your own bags, although please note that a black bin liner or one of those big blue Ikea bags does not constitute 'a bag of scrap'. MEMBERSHIP CARDS It's just not practical for us to keep an up-to-date list of members at the store, so we must insist you show us your membership card if you want to benefit from members' prices. Membership is a really good deal if you visit Orinoco regularly, so we don't think it's too much to ask that you bring your card along with you. If you lose your card, we can issue a replacement for an administration fee of 1 pound. UPCOMING EVENTS Kidlington Green Drinks - 7th June and on the first Tuesday of every month, 8.30pm, Squire Bassett, Kidlington - a great chance to relax over a beer/wine and talk about eco issues close to your heart! Swap shop - Saturday 11th June (and every second Saturday of the month) - Bullingdon Community Centre - 11am to 2pm, plus yummy cafe. Swap shop - Saturday 18th June (and every third Saturday of the month) - Gladstone Road Community Centre (just off London Road in Headington/Quarry) - 11am to 1pm. Kidlington Eco Fair - Saturday 18th June, 12.00-4.00pm - promises to be the biggest and best yet. Be inspired to reduce your carbon footprint, with fun family activities including a swingboat & facepainting ... and one or two surprises! For more information about either of these, contact: kidlingtonvsclimatechange@yahoo.co.uk.
Regards, Orinoco Bullingdon Community Centre, Peat Moors (off the Slade), Headington OX3 7HS Tel: 01865 761113 / 07960 661748, www.oxorinoco.org 15
Exciting Activities with Fire, Food and Films Last summer, the extended services provision of the Chiltern Edge Partnership set up a Holiday Club which ran for 2 weeks during the school holidays at Chiltern Edge Secondary School, located in the village of Sonning Common. The result was that more than 80 children came to enjoy the Club, participating in a wide mix of activities including film-making, forest fun, creative cookery, arts & crafts, dance & drama, multisports and judo. The Holiday Club has just run for a week at Easter, and the new activities of trampolining and music, also proved very popular. The children had been given the opportunity to choose and feel involved. They were given the flexibility to manage their own activities. Children decided to brave a blind taste test of a selection of herbs and spices in cookery, where they buddied up with new friends to see how many tastes they could recognise whilst blindfolded, leading to much laughter. For film-making, each child took home a DVD with their film on, and whilst some were happy to remain behind the camera, others were happier on screen being zombies in the school copse! Making fires and toasting bread and marshmallows were highlights from the Forest Fun activity, where even the rain didn’t stop them as they continued under their home-made dens. The Playscheme is now busy taking bookings, for 3 weeks during the summer from 25th July – 12th August, for all school aged children between 4 – 16 yrs, again using the same principles of choice
of play.
Active Adventures at Blenheim Palace! The pioneering spirit was very much in evidence for children at Blenheim Palace for one week in the Easter holidays with a holiday camp run by Oxford Active. Up to 40 children were able to join in—with 15 young people being funded by GO4it! Their base camp was a marquee set up in the grounds ,with activities run in the wooded area by the lake. Outdoor pursuits instructors engaged the children in every moment of the fun-packed days with base building, catching fish, gutting and cooking them over fires they built themselves. They took part in team games, bounded over assault courses, built rafts and kayaked on the lake, built brilliant dens in the woods using natural materials found in the setting and tried their skills at archery. They also built tree swings, collected bugs, joined in the excitement of treasure hunts and learnt about basic first aid. The activities and nature of the camp were inspiring, giving some of the children involved the opportunity to experience the outdoor life for the first time. 16
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Inspiring Play is produced 4 times a year by Oxfordshire Play Association on behalf of Oxfordshire Play Partnership. Deadlines: Deadlines September edition: 7th September December edition: 14th November March edition: 14th February June edition: 14th May