Islington Play CEO
Post Six.
My intention was to write this blog weekly at least until Christmas but I have to admit that it is making the weeks seem to come round very fast. Not sure I need any devices that make time fly quicker! I have now missed my first week (last week).
I have enjoyed using this space to think about the focus of the work of Islington Play Association as well as adding snippets about home and I hope you have enjoyed reading about it.
This blog is not a coded way to upset or punish anyone (there are policies and procedures for dealing with that sort of thing) this blog is to give me a chance to stand a little bit further back and think about themes and areas of learning and dare I say it ....reflect.
I have had some feedback on the blog- that it is perhaps a little too candid, that I may be talking about particular people or events. Well yes.
Looking at the data for our adventure playgrounds this week we saw that the increase in children coming regularly to the playgrounds as compared to last year has increased by 28%!!! This is really brilliant news and is down to our fantastic staff.
Children can be brought to the sites by parents, sent from school, enticed in with flyers but they are only going to keep coming back if they get something out of it.
I spoke last time about the challenges for some staff in responding to expectations from the organisation, our funders, commissioners and regulators. The data clearly shows that these challenges are being met. Staff have responded to the changes that the IPA has expected with enthusiasm and ability, have attended training and shared good practice, they have become leaders and are confidently running services that children want to come to again and again - this is a massive accomplishment.
Three of us went to an Adventure playground in another borough this week to help take down and put up a swing. It was similar work to that done at Crumbles recently but this time there was a corporate team of accountants involved. It was quite a big job (and responsibility) to manage and organise a big group made up of some people, used to being in charge, who obviously found being ordered about 'novel' at least. I was glad I wasn't in charge.
I was interested in the fact that many of them felt that the situation was 'unsafe' and they were worried about how it would work but they all did what they were told in the unfamiliar situation. It made me think about risk assessment. Even the most senior people deferred to the perceived authority of the leader and did not engage their brain to do internal risk assessments, they felt uncomfortable but the pressure to not make trouble and follow instruction overwhelmed their instincts. They just did things slowly or reluctantly when they felt uncomfortable but they didn't refuse or even question out loud.
As leaders, coordinators, seniors, teachers, adults it seems important to recognise this phenomenon and to take it into account at all times. People doing what they are told does not mean they agree, are involved, engaged or committed. Children playing with what we allow them to play with does not necessarily mean that they have thought about all their options or followed their true feelings. Also people will not be making their own internal risk assessments unless we give them the responsibility for doing so. If children believe the adult is 'in charge' they may relinquish their own decision making facility to the adult, which may not be the best way for them to risk assess as they grow up and face their future.
Surely as playworkers our job should be to facilitate children to develop their sense of self, their trust in their own instincts and to feed their desire to question and explore so that they will be able to challenge and understand the things that happen in the future, make their own assessments about what they should, could or will do and not follow the flock. Even if this means they are not such compliant corporate volunteers....
I went to a wedding in Leeds at the weekend; husband, youngest and me - it was much colder there, a taste of what's to come. The wedding had a casino upstairs and I learnt how to play black jack (tip: always remember you are playing the dealer not the other players) and roulette -( money on orphans anyone?) I lost all my pretend money very quickly and realised it was good I have my job because I could never be a professional gambler.
I learnt something else too. I feel a lot more tired on Monday morning when I have been up late drinking all weekend.....