Learning Environments
What is most children's experience of the school playground? How
would it look if designed for their own creative play? What could
be the impact on children's learning?
In 2004, the 7th PLAYLINK/Portsmouth City Council conference set
out to challenge received ideas of what constitutes a good environment
for learning and explore the common elements of play and learning
environments.
The conference included discussions with a number of playworkers
and teachers currently co-operating to improve children's experience
of the playground and breaktime in schools.
Summaries and excerpts from Presentations to the conference are
available here:
Play at School
The
Play at School Scheme was established in 1993 in response to the
growing number of enquiries PLAYLINK was receiving from primary
schools which had decided that their playgrounds needed to be improved.
The Play At School Scheme was an attempt to change attitudes and
values using a management consultancy style of engagement. In this
it was an attempt to enhance the capacity of schools to address
the ‘whole child’, the one that actually attends school. PLAYLINK’s
Play at School Scheme aimed to assist schools turn ‘breaktime’ into
‘playtime’.
Play at School, a report on the project by Bernard Spiegal of PLAYLINK
is available at: http://www.playlink.org.uk/publications/documents/pas.pdf.
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