The Nursery World/Learning Through Landscapes Outdoor Challenge is back, offering you a fantastic opportunity to tell us about your outdoor space, and win a range of exciting prizes.
This year's Outdoor Challenge is focused on enabling access to high-quality outdoor play in the early years - a focus loosely based on the DCSF's Quality and Access capital investment programme, which aims to encourage physical play in PVI settings. Many local authorities and early years settings are viewing the programme as an opportunity to improve their provision of outdoor play.
So, this year's Outdoor Challenge invites you to tell us about:
- how you are providing outdoor play in your setting
- your aspirations for outdoor play
- how you intend to implement changes in order to fulfil these goals. (See 'How to enter'.)
Below are some points on the importance of outdoor opportunities for settings today, our work at Learning Through Landscapes and guidance on how you can make changes in your setting. Together these will provide some guidance for you as you prepare your plans for your outdoor area and put together your application.
OUTDOOR PROVISION FOR TODAY'S CHILDREN
How has the early years outdoor play 'landscape' changed since the last competition?
- All the early years curricula across the UK contain explicit references to the importance of outdoor play in the early years
- EYFS documentation contains the Shared Vision and Values for outdoor play in the early years, developed by Nursery World, Learning Through Landscapes and an interested group of organisations and individuals
- The DCSF has responded to clear demand for outdoor play improvements with a three-year programme of Capital Grant Funding in settings in England
- Nursery World runs a weekly feature on Enabling Environments, with many focusing on the outdoors.
MAKING THE CHANGES
The early years team at Learning Through Landscapes has been busy supporting a number of local authorities across England, Scotland and Wales. Our role has been to:
- audit current outdoor play provision
- work with settings on how best to improve their provision
- support early years advisory staff in order to monitor and sustain the changes in their link settings.
The outcomes are just starting to become apparent, with settings reporting improved behaviour, more engaged children, and higher levels of enthusiasm in staff alongside a real willingness to embrace new learning and skills.
KEY PRINCIPLES
Settings up and down the country have been able to make and sustain change because:
- Staff and parents recognise the value of outdoor play and the special nature of outdoors
- Children's needs are being firmly established through a thorough and participative process of auditing the setting's facilities, their spaces and the skills and abilities of the adults working there
- Children's voices are being heard throughout the development process
- Barriers to change are being identified and overcome, collectively
- Capital funding is ensuring high-quality outdoor play outcomes.
MANAGING CHANGE
A really useful way to start managing change outdoors is to get a collective agreement about where you are heading. What does high-quality outdoor play look like? What are children doing? How are adults interacting with the children? What is the atmosphere like? What sorts of materials and equipment are available? Are children safe, but challenged outdoors? The answers to these sorts of questions will help you focus your aspirations so you have realistic and achievable goals.
AUDITING YOUR SITE
Settings are now very familiar with auditing their provision, and a wide range of audit tools is available. Auditing your outdoor provision will help you identify barriers to accessing the outdoors more, and provide ideas about where to focus your energy.
- Think about what's special about your outdoor space. What does it 'tell' children about how the adults around them value their needs?
- Take lots of pictures of your space, focusing on the areas where children like to play, as well as the spaces they avoid.
- Use props such as teddies and dolls in pushchairs to help children tell you about their favourite and least favourite places.
- Record children's thoughts and ideas. Ask staff and parents to share their concerns and aspirations too.
A thorough self-assessment will also include an evaluation of how often you use outdoors, what for, when, and how you manage free-flow access and weather conditions.
If there are spaces you don't use, can you establish why? How do children move in and out of the space, and around it? Can they play outdoors in all weathers? If not, what's stopping this from happening?
Use your audit to formulate an action plan, remembering that you may need to be offering training and development time for staff in order to make sure your improvements to the physical quality of outdoors are matched by the quality of provision.
BARRIERS AND SOLUTIONS
Common barriers to better or more frequent outdoor play include 'the weather', poor (or no) outdoor storage, difficult access in and outdoors, resistance from parents, lack of confidence in staff and lack of stimulating resources.
Learning Through Landscapes' initial research in the London Borough of Harrow identified that many PVI settings struggle when they rent or share their premises, finding themselves unable to get agreement to make physical changes. Often these urban settings have specific issues such as noise, road pollution and sheer lack of space.
But we've also found a wealth of inspirational ideas from the settings:
- Wet and sunny weather gear, stored accessibly close to exit doors or in outdoor sheds
- Click-together temporary fencing to create secure play spaces while the setting is in session
- 'Freeflow' curtains - plastic strips on the doorways that allow free indoor-outdoor access for children, but keep the 'weather' outdoors
- Shade structures that add to the appearance of the site
- Outdoor play open days for parents to explore the fun and challenge that outdoor play can offer, playing alongside their children.
Please consider entering the Outdoor Challenge and sharing your experiences and aspirations with the judging panel.
MORE INFORMATION
For information about developing high-quality outdoor play, visit the Learning Through Landscapes website, www.ltl.org.uk.
LTL's award-winning PlayOut Toolkit (£60/£40 for LTL members from www.ltl.org.uk) has been developed to help settings work through the process of change. It provides advice on auditing, involving children and parents, and materials, equipment and features, along with a DVD and a CD of photocopiable resources.
£10,000-plus of prizes!
1ST PRIZE
- A Safe Shade canopy worth £6,000 (including installation)
- A Safe Shade graphics panel worth £2,000 (including
installation)
- A Learning Through Landscapes site visit worth £400
- An annual subscription to Nursery World magazine
- A year's subscription to Early Years Outdoors
- A copy of LTL's award-winning PlayOut Toolkit
2ND PRIZE
- 20 sets of waterproof jackets and dungarees from Raindrops worth
£700
- A single door 'freeflow' curtain from Freeflow Curtains worth £100
- An annual subscription to Nursery World magazine
- A year's subscription to Early Years Outdoors
- A copy of LTL's award-winning PlayOut Toolkit
3RD PRIZE
- Crate Time den kit from TTS Group worth £200
- A single door 'freeflow' curtain from Freeflow Curtains worth £100
- An annual subscription to Nursery World magazine
- A year's subscription to Early Years Outdoors
- A copy of LTL's award-winning PlayOut Toolkit
PLUS seven runner-up prizes of a year's subscription to Early Years
Outdoors
How to enter: Learning Through Landscapes is delighted to once again partner with Nursery World magazine for the 2009 Outdoor Challenge Awards.
The focus of the competition is Quality and Access, something that many of you are probably working on at present with your local authority. This means we want to hear about:
- how you use your outdoor space now
- your aspirations for the area
- how you intend to work towards achieving these goals.
Application forms and guidance notes can now be downloaded from the Nursery World website (www.nurseryworld.co.uk) and opposite are pointers to consider in your application.
What is vital is that you demonstrate how you are providing high-quality outdoor play experiences for the children, and how you are increasing access to outdoor play.
Remember to include images and other supporting material.
The closing date for applications is 15 January 2010. Good luck!
