Play Essay

To work in conjunction with the youth project team to plan, facilitate and evaluate an exciting programme of play work for 5 - 12 year olds

Every Child Matters Framework which is currently in the process to be changed is part of the Children Act 2004; it is a piece of legislation which has and influences planning and provisions of learning opportunities. The Every Child Matters ensures that settings provide quality of children’s and young people’s play and learning.This supports children from birth to 19 years. When practitioners plan, they should relate their work to the five outcomes for children; be healthy, stay safe, enjoy and achieve though learning, make a positive contribution to society and achieve economic

1.1 Outline current legislation, guidelines, policies and procedure within own UK Home Nation affecting the safeguarding of children and young people.

All Children and young people in your care should be treated with the same respect and have the same rights and access to

As a practitioner it’s your duty to observe and maintain correct procedures to ensure that the children are offered a stimulating environment which will further allow optimum possibilities for development. All those who work with or amongst children and young people have a crucial role to play in helping not only to shape aspects of their lives, but to also aid in enhancing their future development. Therefore it can be stated that how we set up our own working practices can affect children and young people’s development, as will be identified by this essay; below are areas where one should concentrate in order to further

Play is essential to every part of children’s lives and is important to their development. It provides the children with different ways of doing things children will want to explore and learn new things.

As a playworker it is important to have a good knowledge and understanding of children’s rights and the legal framework relating to them. We need to be able to evaluate existing policies to ensure that the rights of children and young people are being met, this includes consulting the children and young people on how the setting can best meet their rights and making them aware of how to assert them. Children should be given the opportunity to freely express their thoughts and ideas and it is important that these are acted on where possible as this will show the children and young people that you respect and value their opinions and allow us as playworkers to provide a play space and play equipment that they will be happy with. For example allowing children to choose what equipment they would like to play with and

10. Explain how play work organisations seek to balance the health, safety and security of the play environment with children and young people’s need for stimulation, risk and challenge. A play work provision

It could be argued that playworkers are often naturally skilled and adept at making good relationships with the children in the informal setting of a play environment. Whilst adult relationships may take more time and effort, and thus more difficult to achieve it is essential that they maintain positive relationships with other adults within the play environment. As professional’s playworkers are likely to come in to contact with a range of adults be it parents, carers, elder siblings, other playworkers, or the general network of care and as a result need to be proficient in forming positive relations with such

The relationship between play and learning seems obvious to many child professionals and parents, and yet there are still lack of understanding surrounding the importance of children's play. Some people believe that children need to "work" not play, and that playing serves no useful purpose in a learning and development environment. This is surprising considering that play, with its high levels of motivation and potential enjoyment empowers children (as well as people

1.Briefly explain why it is important that the team work together when supporting children and young people’s play.

Everyone in the U.K, including children and young people, have rights that are recognised and protected. These rights are granted by legislation, for example, Human right legislation, The Children Act, etc, which have evolved from a variety of sources. One of these sources is The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the child. Before this was adopted any laws relating to the care and protection of children and young people gave all rights to the child’s parents to do as they felt fit.

When learning becomes fun the teachers find it less challenging for trying to keep the child engaged in the activity at hand. The job of the educator working with a play-based curriculum is to facilitate play, to draw out and extend what children learn through play (Play Based Programmes, 2015). Children have a variety of play spaces available that mimic their regular world around them, each space can be intertwined with another centre such as combining the truck centre with the block centre, or adding in some zoo animals to the area. The play based approach can be used by children of all abilities, it allows children to play independently or as a small group, and allows the children the opportunity to bring their home life into their play.

The Early Years Learning Framework relates the importance of play to notions of belonging, being and becoming. It states that children make sense of their social worlds through playing with others (DEEWR, 2009). Article 13 of the UN Convention reads that every child has the right to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child (Connor, 2010). It is important to note that play has multiple approaches and that children’s play varies greatly according to culture, interests,

Play is a way for children to learn about their environment and how interaction occurs within. It is through trial and error that children are able to create options; follow their own interests and show “independence in thought and actions” using their knowledge and understanding (Moyles, 2005, p.3). Children develop resilience though play. However for a number of children can experience stressful occurrences during their lives and play can often be restricted. Therefore the play worker’s role in supporting children’s play is a crucial measure towards children's development. For those that work with children require the dexterity to prompt and contribute to children’s play, which can be seen as a principle aspect of therapeutic alliance.