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Share| TRACK 9: Playwork Theory more Depth | ROOM 3 | ||
| 9.36 | psycholudics | Eddie Nuttall | Psycholudics is the study of the mind at play. In this session playworker Eddie Nuttall will be taking us on a playful journey into inner space... This workshop explores the discipline of psycholudics in greater depth, focusing on the interchange between adult and child inherent in playworking. Eddie will be focussing on the term ‘intervention’, and the many different facets this term has in practice. Why do we make so called ‘therapeutic interventions’ in playwork? who benefits, and for what purpose? We will also examine together the notion of reflective practice from a psycholudic perspective, challenging as this does some of the traditional notions of professional reflective work. This session will offer much to playwork practitioners, including trainers that wish to look in greater depth at the existing model of playwork psychology, and what it might mean to their practice. |
| 1 hour 10:30 – 11:30 ‘Make my Brain Hurt’ | |||
| 9.37 | amalgamated play types | Joel Seath | Examining Hughes’ amalgamated play types as ‘intricate behavioural routines’. You will be invited to think. Joel is currently thinking. Please bring along your brain . . . and coffee. |
| 1 hour 11:45 – 12:45 ‘Make my Brain Hurt’ | |||
| 9.38 | inverting the deficit model of adult intervention in children's play | Mike Wragg & Ben Tawil | This workshop will through discussion, fun n games and practical activities consider the relationship between play, risk, uncertainty, childhood and adulteration/intervention. Delegates will be provided with the opportunity to reflect on practice, theory and policy (promise it won't be as boring as it sounds) to develop knowledge and skills to better manage risk or uncertainty in staffed play provision. Whilst taking a stroll round the park with my mother and two boys the older of the two, let’s say he’s 10, climbed a tree. I rolled a cigarette. And she became anxious. Not because she objects to my smoking, which she does, but because by this time the tree climber had elevated himself to a height of about six feet. “Be careful” she screamed at him, failing to recognise either the absence of significant danger or the care and dexterity, born of several years’ practice, with which he was performing his ascent. Consequently the distracted boy fell from the tree providing granny with both proof of the dangers of tree climbing and justification for its immediate prohibition. This ludicrous yet typical adult intervention led me to wonder whether we spend enough time thinking about what leads ‘us’ to behave so wrong-headedly towards children. Several conversations with my colleague, Ben Tawil, later and we came to the conclusion that the deficit model which predominantly informs adult intervention in children’s play needs inverting. So please come and join us in a workshop which seeks to identify and remedy the deficiencies of deluded adults. |
| 2 hours 13:30 - 15:30 ‘Make my Brain Hurt’ |
| TRACK 10: Playwork Provision | ROOM 6 | ||
| 10.39 | pop-up play shop: transforming empty shops into community play spaces | Morgan Leichter-Saxby | This workshop explores the Pop-Up Play Shop project and model. Offering open access, all-ages, all-abilities play provision from an empty arcade shopfront, the pilot location in Cardiff (October 2011 – March 2012) was delivered in partnership with Re-Create Scrap Store and Play Association and funded by Cymorth Small Play Grants. Participants constructed worlds from cardboard, made costumes from fabric scraps, and painted all over the walls. The support from the local residents, political representatives and international play community was enormous, particularly during an appeal launched against a business rates bill levied by a different branch of the same city council which provided start-up funding. This pilot has enormous potential to reframe how we approach community-based play project, and demonstrates one way in which provision for play can help bring play to the lives of children, in their homes and in their city centres. Participants will learn playwork approaches to whole-family dynamics, and brainstorm ways to apply the lessons of this pilot to their own settings and neighbourhoods. |
| 1 hour: 10:30-11:30 ‘Tell me More’ | |||
| 10.40 | hospital playwork | David Thompson | Take a look at day in the life of a Hospital Play Specialist at the UK’s largest paediatric brain injury rehabilitation centre in this discussion and activity based seminar. Find out how the uniqueness and centricity of the play process helps us to support children and young people with acquired brain injury (ABI) and profound and multiple learning difficulties (PMLD). Explore and experience how Specialist Hospital Play is utterly different to playwork on one hand, whilst being almost parallel on the other. When it comes to providing rehabilitative, transitional, palliative and long-term nursing care to children and young people from birth to 25years old; play in our sector isn’t always easy or fun for the children and sometimes it can also be pretty hard on the playworker But by bringing yourself, your playfulness and your passion to this session; you will gain an understanding of how specialist hospital play provision is an important and irreplaceable service. |
| 1 hour: 11:45-12:45 ‘Tell me More’ | |||
| 10.41 | playboat project | Nicole Ioannou | Would you automatically think of a canal as a place to play? Are there too many risks? Are the children going to be safe near water? Is the water clean? Milton Keynes Play Associations’ Creative Playboat Project tackles all these questions and more to make the canal a safer and more exciting place to play. Encouraging the communities to use the canal as a place for recreation is a big part of the project along with the direct work with the children. There are lots of risks but no more than crossing the road and the risks are dealt with by professional qualified staff. Attend this workshop and find out all about the project from start to present day and beyond. Find out about the unique adventure the playworkers have been on. |
| 1 hour: 13:00-14:00 ‘Tell me More’ | |||
| 10.42 | managing the unexpected: a resilient play organisation | Stuart Lester | Playwork organisations need to be able to cope with the creation of disorder, uncertainty and the unexpected, and to remain open to these conditions rather than resist these essential elements of children’s play. This workshop starts with the recognition that playing, as a distinctive way of being in time/space, contributes to enhancing adaptive systems and children’s ability to cope with an uncertain world (Lester and Russell, 2008). Given the importance of organisations seeking to align structures and practices with children’s play, we will explore some of the possible implications for developing a ‘resilient’ play organisation, one where approaches to Leadership and Management are designed to enable playworkers to be adaptive and responsive to the ever-changing patterns of children’s play. |
| 1 hour: 14:00-15:30 ‘Make my Brain Hurt’ |
| TRACK 11: The Playwork Environment | ROOM 5 | ||
| 11.43 | creating play environments | Pete Darlington & Dave Poulton | Participants will come and explore the possibilities of space, their own imagination in regards to space and the elements that contribute to a successful play environment. This is a practical hands-on session, there will be an opportunity to reflect and analyse to think through what you have done and your feelings regarding space considerations and issues to spacing in children’s play. |
| 1 hour 15 minutes : 10:30-11:45 ‘Tell me More’ | |||
| 11.44 | using the playwork curriculum | Karen Benjamin | According to Playwork Principle 5 the role of the playworker is to create spaces in which children and young people can freely play. The playwork curriculum provides an essential tool for evaluating how well we create those play spaces in our settings. This workshop will explore our understanding of the playwork curriculum and give examples and suggestions for how we can use it in practice. |
| ! hour 30 minutes: 12:15-13:45 ‘Tell me More’ | |||
| 11.45 | making the most of your indoors | Sue Howrihane | Are you sharing a space? Have an unsuitable play space? Have no access to outside? Come to my workshop to support you to create a fantastic play space. We will use everyday items to create a wonderful play setting that any child would like to explore. We can have ago at bringing the outside in, along with providing as many different play types as possible. This is an interactive workshop where you will be doing the creations yourselves working as a team together and hopefully inspiring each other Taking back to your setting some new ideas to enhance the play space you have |
| 1 hour 30 minutes: 14:00-15:30 ‘Tell me More’ |
| TRACK 12: Reflective Practice | ROOM 4 | ||
| 12.46 | introduction to reflective practice | Jacky Kilvington | Reflective Practice is now a cornerstone of playwork. Reflecting on our playwork practice is considered to be very important. Knowing how to make that reflection effective and relevant is vital. If you are not sure: why it’s important; when to do it; different ways to approach it; different ways of doing it; whether you are doing it right; how to make it more effective or you just want to think about it some more, then come to this workshop. If you just want to hone your reflective skills, then come too. If you have doubts about it and its application or relevance to playwork, then come too. The workshop will be reflective and participative. Come with your eyes, ears, mouths and brains – some of the things that will help you with reflection. |
| 1 hour: 10:30-11:30 ‘Tell me More’ | |||
| 12.47 | intuition, memory, experience, evidence | Bridget Handscomb | An excellent tool that is all too often not used. This will be a free flowing discussion about using the IMEE model for reflection in playwork. |
| 1 hour 11:45-12:45 ‘Tell me More’ | |||
| 12.48 | practical realities of undertaking reflections | Tony Delahoy | This session will explore the issues and practical aspects of engaging in reflective playwork practice. The session will provide an overview of the reflective practice process, methods and models used by playworkers and then lead into the practicalities. The what , how, when etc. There will be opportunities to engage in reflective practice using the playwork tradition of telling stories. Come prepared to share! Don’t be shy because although some aspects can be serious it’s also bound to be a bit of a laugh. You never know if it goes really well we may end up in the bar doing it all night. For many playworkers I’m sure it wouldn’t be the first time. Feel free to participate to whatever level you are comfortable with. The session will start with a presentation and then go into small group activity. |
| 1 hour 30 minutes: 13:15-14:45 ‘Tell me More’ |
| TRACK 13: Being In Charge. | ROOM 7 | ||
| 13.49 | the role of a manager and a leader | David Stonehouse | Both excellent management and excellent leadership are vital to enable playworkers to facilitate and deliver quality play. This session will argue however that these two roles are very different and should be treated differently, both supported fully for success to be achieved. What a manager is and what a leader is will be discussed, before examining some management and leadership styles. The session will be delivered in a very informal way utilising a slide presentation. Questions, discussion and debate will be encouraged. |
| 1 hour 30 minutes: 10:30-12:00 ‘Tell me More’ | |||
| 13.50 | supporting your staff team to become better | Frank Crookenden-Johnson CJ | “Supporting your staff team to become better” - a led discussion on ways in which you can help your team to develop both personally and as a team, working to their strengths and supporting where more support is needed. |
| 1 hour: 12:15-13:15 ‘Tell me More’ | |||
| 13.51 | change managment | David Stonehouse | This session will examine what change is all about and why it is so important. How if our play service does not develop and evolve then it runs the very real risk of becoming an extinct dinosaur! If therefore change is so important then, why are certain people, other playworkers, resistant to change and fight against it? How change can be managed will be discussed, examining tools for change and how resistance can be overcome. The is another very informal session utilising a slide presentation. Questions, discussion and debate will be encouraged. |
| 1 hour 30 minutes:13:30-15:00 ‘Make my Brain Hurt’ |
| TRACK 14: Internal Quality Assurance | ROOM 1 | ||
| 14.52 | embedding PLTS in apprenticeships | Debbie Willett | A workshop to look at the strategies and mapping relating to the embedding of PLTS into the apprenticeship framework. This workshop is aimed at training providers working with playwork apprenticeships. |
| 1 hour: 10:30-11:30 ‘Tell me More’ | |||
| 14.53 | Quality in Play | Steve Chown | Ensuring Quality in Play – does quality assurance help or hinder children’s play? Quality in Play was originally created by playworkers in partnerships with Hackney Play Association in 1998 as the first ever play-specific quality assurance scheme. Quality in Play is now managed by Play England. The workshop will focus on the role of Quality in Play in continuous improvement and reflective practice. It will also examine the link between quality assurance, funding and sustainability. But most importantly it will explore the relevance of quality assurance to improving policy and practice in supporting children’s play. In doing so, the workshop will look at how we can ensure children have freedom to play, how they control what they do when they play and who they play within the context of staffed play provision. Is quality assurance just another bureaucratic tool or can it help playworkers create space where children can play? |
| 1 hour: 11:45-12:45 ‘Tell me More’ | |||
| 14.54 | training volunteers to develop new services | Kate Hellard & Karen Benjamin | This discussion, which will focus on the elements to include in the development of new training opportunities for volunteers, which will support an increase in local people supporting local play provision. So if you are wondering how to best work with volunteers this could be very useful to you |
| 1 hour 30 minutes: 13:15-14:45 ‘Tell me More’ |
| TRACK 15: The Sexual Issues | ROOM 2 | ||
| 15.55 | "sexual issues" session 1 | Jess Milne & Ali Wood | How do children build resilience? In playwork, we have long argued that play is the natural means by which children emotionally and physically grow and express themselves; it’s how they explore and experiment, take risks and learn to cope with what life brings. So how do children play with regard to their sexuality and sexual development? (How did you?) And how do we adults respond to this? What should the playworker’s role be in this whole minefield? We – Ali and Jess – are running a workshop to explore a whole stack of issues around all this – a provocative, difficult, sensitive, sometimes humourous but absolutely essential subject that will really make us think. To do this justice, the workshop is in two parts – morning and afternoon (it may be difficult to join halfway through!). So you might miss everything else that day, but you’ll gain so much from this, you really won’t mind. |
| 2 hours: 10:30-12:30 ‘Make my Brain Hurt’ | |||
| 15.56 | "sexual issues" the 'catch up' | Jess Milne & Ali Wood | This is a session for anyone who wants to come to the afternoon session but who didn't come to the morning session to see if you are able to join in. |
| 15 minutes: 13:15-13:30 | |||
| 15.57 | "sexual issues" session 2 | Ali Wood & Jess Milne | This is the second session. If you have not attended the morning session then coming into the afternoon session may be too complex for you. In order to find out whether it will work for you there is a "catch up" session at 13:15 |
| 2 hours – 13:30-15:30 ‘Make my Brain Hurt’ |
| TRACK 16: Research | ROOM 8 | ||
| 16.58 | Freely-Chosen Play: Myth or Reality? | Pete King | Government legislation and professional practice is still influenced by the definition of play being freely-chosen and intrinsically motivated. This workshop will outline the results of a three year PhD study on children’s perception of choice in their play at home, in the school playground and the out of school club using two research tools developed for this study. The research tools are the Play Detective Diary and the M.A.S.T experiment. The workshop will conclude with a discussion around whether freely-chosen play is realistic is it just another adult-generated agenda. |
| 1 hour: 10:30-11:30 ‘Make my Brain Hurt’ | |||
| 16.59 | simply play | Beth Cooper | In a world where play space commissioners are looking to provide the most playable spaces possible, procurement practice focuses on play value for money or simply value for money, and people are looking to design and build the best playspaces in a time of diminished funds. How do we quantify play value? How do we do the best for the player? This session will introduce Simply Play to you as an audience of people passionate about play. Simply Play: • Enables the immeasurable to become measurable • Supports the communication of the value of play and the importance of high quality play spaces • Focuses on the space itself • Supports the design and development of high quality play spaces Simply Play has been developed from an audit process originally created by Perry Else (Ludemos Associate, Course Leader in Children and Playwork at Sheffield Hallam University and Author) who is also a supervisor on this project. The Partnership between Timberplay Ltd and Sheffield Hallam has enabled this original process to be field tested as well as being supported by revisiting the wealth of literature on play space development and high quality play spaces. |
| 1 hour 30 minutes: 11:45-13:15 ‘Tell me More’ | |||
| 16.60 | La vie en play | Dr. Sylwyn Guilbaud | What happens when rather than striving to find out about play, we allow ourselves to be altered by the details of the play that we are noticing? This session will trace threads of the research experience that evolved from a playwork orientated position of indeterminate comprehension as a means of responsively perceiving children’s play. As a playworker/researcher my phenomenological inquiry occurred via the gradual sensitizing of my perception. In letting myself be changed by the content of play instances and the process of observing these, my sensory lens became permeated and I came to an ever more wonder-filled sensing of the world around me. I will share stories of the how trust in the serendipitous and in gradually dawning awareness’s became the method and there in the ‘ethics’ and the ‘rigor’ of my research. I will tell of my journey of discovering the might of play – the power in possibility. |
| 1 hour 30 minutes: 13:30-14:30 ‘Make my Brain Hurt’ | |||
| 16.61 | a new vision for playwork: the solutions | Rob Wheway | A New Vision for Playwork – The Solutions One of two linked sessions - Tuesday “The Issues” and Wednesday “The Solutions” Having raised the problems and shortcomings on Tuesday we will look for solutions What will a primary focus on “the right to play” affect our work Can we realistically defend the right to play for ALL children in our area How and where can we defend the child’s right to play (and where else should we?) How can we move people from regarding child as nuisance to child as citizen What extra training/support will we need Some solutions will be offered but it’s mainly up to you – you will have had all night to think it through |
| 1 hour: 14:30-15:30 ‘Tell me More’ |
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