Design your own playground
The Departmen for Children, Schools and Families have launched
an interactive website and poster campaign to encourage children to
give their views on play and play areas as part of the first ever
national consultation on children's play.
The website and posters give children the chance to design their
own play space using playground favourites such as see-saws and
round-a-bouts mixed with more modern structures such as wooden
climbing walls.
On the website children can choose from a variety of settings to
reflect their local areas, with a choice of urban, rural or sports
fields on which to build their ideal play area. In order to add
equipment to their play space children must answer a series of
questions around the idea of play. The more questions answered the
more points they earn to spend on designing their own play
space.
The views of children and young people will play a crucial part
in this consultation, and it is important that as many as possible
are able to contribute their ideas. This short, online activity is
aimed at 8 to 13 year olds and will ensure that children can give
their views while at the same time being creative and having fun.
All the consultation questions have been drafted using
childfriendly language.
Minister for Children and Young People Kevin Brennan said: "I
want to know what play spaces children actually want. The website
and posters are designed to inspire children to get involved in our
consultation and tell us what makes play fun for them. We want to
ensure that their ideas and needs are at the heart of everything we
are doing to create safe, child-friendly public spaces and to make
this country the best place in the world to grow up."
Minister for Sport Gerry Sutcliffe said: "I want all children to
get outdoors and to enjoy being active. By making it fun for
children to answer consultation questions, we can hopefully get as
many responses as possible. We're going to be developing some
fantastic, stimulating play areas and I hope this will revive
outdoor play for children up and down the country."
The consultation on children's play was announced by Secretaries
of State Ed Balls and Andy Burnham on 3 April. The initiative means
that children across the country will get an extra 3,500 play areas
and 30 local authorities will get £2million each to build new
adventure playgrounds, as part of a £235million Government
investment in children's play.
Visit Playspace website www.dcsf.gov.uk/playspace