“Being antiracist results from a conscious decision to make frequent, consistent, equitable choices daily. These choices require ongoing self-awareness and self-reflection as we move through life. In the absence of making antiracist choices, we (un)consciously uphold aspects of white supremacy, white-dominant culture, and unequal institutions and society. Being racist or antiracist is not about whoContinue reading “Working Towards an Anti-Racist Practice (as a White Practitioner)”
Category Archives: Reflection
Untangling “Consulting” with Children
I’ve recently had the opportunity to expand my practice into what was a new area for me; consulting with children. In some ways it wasn’t new area at all; ongoing consultation with children is a part of my everyday practice; I’m always seeking to get to know the children I’m working with and learning aboutContinue reading “Untangling “Consulting” with Children”
Playful Communication Part 3: Wordplay
Previously I’ve written about the importance of recognising and valuing different forms of communication and the need for us to allow for expressive as well as functional communication. In this piece I’m going to take a specific look at language as a form of expressive communication and in particular what this can look like inContinue reading “Playful Communication Part 3: Wordplay”
National Playwork Conference 2018 (I was there, lucky me!)
I recently had the fantastic experience of attending the 16th National Playwork Conference in Eastbourne. The conference is run by a non-profit play organisation called Meynell Games they deliver training, playwork services and sell playwork books. You can learn a bit more about the conference here http://www.playworkconferences.org.uk/ and, if you’re looking for books on playworkContinue reading “National Playwork Conference 2018 (I was there, lucky me!)”
Play Diary: Wanted kids and missing flamingos
It was a quiet chilly day at the playground and I’d been chatting with a fellow playworker about what to do with an underused and in-the-way wooden leaflet stand. I wasn’t feeling particularly inspired and was mostly coming up with overly complex ideas involving a box of wool I’d uncovered and been a bit desperateContinue reading “Play Diary: Wanted kids and missing flamingos”
Creating inclusive play spaces: a place to start
If one hundred people wrote a guide to creating inclusive play spaces the result would be one hundred different guides. That’s no bad thing, they could be a hundred fantastic and useful guides filled with innovative and creative ideas, but, “inclusive” is not a fixed state. And as it is informed by multiple ever changingContinue reading “Creating inclusive play spaces: a place to start”
Diagrams and Laughter
I wanted to take a moment today to share this image. It’s a diagram I drew a couple of years ago and come back to it often when thinking about communication. It shows how laughter uses all our methods of expression at once, its emotional, physical and verbal. I once worked with a kid whoContinue reading “Diagrams and Laughter”
Play Diary: Telling Stories
I know a child who speaks in headlines and snippets from stories of mischief and chaos. He mixes characters, plot points and slapstick action with highlights from days in his life. Though it may sound like a random collage it’s never outside of a certain rationality; rules and facts of life drawn from the workingsContinue reading “Play Diary: Telling Stories”
Play Diary: Tubes, Tubes and Temporary Playgrounds
Hello and welcome to another play diary This entry will be bit of a flashback to those couple of weeks in the summer where I got very into a bunch of cardboard tubes. Hope you enjoy! Back in the summer I got the opportunity to go into a local play scheme and run a playContinue reading “Play Diary: Tubes, Tubes and Temporary Playgrounds”
Play Radical 