Playing Equals Learning
When you look back at your own childhood, what is it, that you remember?
We’ll each have our own answers, of course, but I suspect that a common thread will be having the time and space to play.
Indulge yourself for a moment. Wasn’t it wonderful when you could spend hours immersed in a make-believe world, often shared with friends, that created dens out of gaps in a bush, ravines out of ditches and kingdoms out of carefully-positioned rocks? Did you worry if it was cold or a bit rainy? Wasn’t being outdoors so much better than being in – ‘just five more minutes Mum’?
As adults, many of us will have lost the opportunity to let our imaginations roam as they once did but that doesn’t mean the experience was wasted. Far from it. Playing is part of growing up and playing outdoors, when both the mind and the body are exercised, is as vital as the three Rs.
There is plenty of scientific evidence to back my thesis up. In 2001 the British Medical Journal reported that there is ‘an obesity epidemic in young (pre-school) children’ and that the main solution should be to ‘reduce television viewing and promote playing’. In 2004, University of London research found that children got more exercise from outdoor play than they did from clubs and formal sports activities and, in 2005, another study published by Ridgers, ND and others concluded that, as well as developing positive attitudes towards physical activity and sport, school playtime had a positive impact on learning.
As Head of Marketing at Playforce, it is not so much the research as the feedback I receive every day from our customers that, in my view, demonstrates the real power and value of play. Head teachers regularly report that pupil access to playground equipment leads to improved social behaviour, increased physical fitness, a willingness to share, better emotional well-being, all-round healthiness and greater mental ability .
‘Outdoor activity is just as important to learning and achievement as indoor activity,’ said Juliet Levingstone, head teacher at Burnwood Nursery School in Stoke-on-Trent after Playforce installed a new timber trail. ‘We wanted something that was challenging, which is exactly what we have got and the children have risen to that challenge. Each day we see their confidence and ability growing. It’s fantastic and they all love it, they can’t wait to get to school.’
That message is repeated time and time again – and not just by the teachers. I’ve met parents who hang around after school – with the school’s permission - in order to let their children play on the playground equipment for a bit longer. One mum said that it allowed her daughter to enjoy the sort of adventure and challenge that many of us will remember from our own youth but which, sadly, is often denied to our children because of fears for their safety. Another said that the extra playtime meant that her son was learning new skills and yet another said that, since she didn’t have a garden at home, it gave her daughter the chance to wear herself out in a fun, exciting way before going home for tea.
According to a recently published Unicef survey, the overall standard of children’s well-being in this country is amongst the worst in the world’s developed nations. Another survey, published in 2004 by the Green Alliance and the think-tank Demos, concluded that more and more children were ‘afraid of playing outdoors’ and that, to reverse the trend, better and safer play environments were needed to let children’s ‘imaginations run wild’.
The Government, too, is clearly worried by the social impact of increasing childhood obesity and juvenile delinquency. Play England, a five year project that has been set up as part of the National Children’s Bureau, aims to create a lasting support structure for play providers. Building on a strategy developed by The Children’s Play Council, its guiding principle is that ‘play is of fundamental importance for children and young people’s health and well-being’.
Playforce was set up eight years ago by Rachel and Edward Webb and, with three young children of their own, they are both firm advocates of the need for outdoor play. As a company, we design and install playground equipment that is tailor-made for individual schools – carefully taking into account the views of the school council, the allocated outdoor playground space and the staff’s requirements.
We are a business but we are also altruists. We believe in what we are doing because we see the results and we know we are making a difference.
Outdoor play is education at its best. As the French Renaissance scholar Montaigne once wrote:
‘It should be noted that children at play are not playing about; their games should be seen as their most serious-minded activity.’
