Collaboratory Researcher Profiles
Project Title: Reimagining practices of play: collaborating with communities to support curiosity-driven play across the primary school
What were you doing before starting this PhD?
I trained as a playworker in 2009. Over the past 16 years I have had the privilege of creating and protecting spaces for unstructured play in an incredible variety of settings; community centres, a museum on the move, public parks, a community allotment, Great Ormond Street Hospital, a hotel for asylum seekers, schools (primary, secondary, mainstream, SEND, inner city and rural, European and African) urban woodland, empty shops and residential streets closed for play. Most recently in Nottingham I worked at a local primary school developing play opportunities as their Play Coordinator, freelanced for Ignite delivering therapeutic play for asylum seeker children and sat on the evaluation panel for Nottingham Games Project.
What motivated you to apply for this specific PhD project?
I think playwork is distinctive in the realm of modern western childhood; it is not-for-profit, attendees are not customers, there are no products, scores nor league tables, there is lots of mixed aged play. There is rarely anything to take home except memories, endorphins and new neural pathways and therefore is a perfect framework for this collaborative, community-based approach. Since writing my first book “Children don’t dissolve in the rain” my memoir about parenthood and playwork, strangers come to me and share their play memories but they also ask for help in creating spaces for their children to play, both at home and out in the community. My peers want more play for themselves and their children but it seems like as a collective we feel stuck about how to actually start playing again. There is a long history of playwork here in Notts and I find Nottingham folk very playful and community-minded. I think there will be some excellent knowledge to share from playful people in our communities.
What difference do you hope to make in Nottingham through this research?
I’d love to see more school halls and school playgrounds available and being used for child-led free play afterschool and in the holidays. When children are engaged in play that is meaningful to them, I often see that their caregivers are calmer and hold a better sense of wellbeing.
What do you hope to be doing in 5 years’ time?
Since my early days of playwork I have been advocating for inclusive play and working with children with complex support needs but given my own recent diagnosis I suspect I will be doing more advocacy around ADHD provision in mainstream schools. And I’d really love to feel like an author again! That excitement of opening a box of freshly printed books with my name on it was very special. Do we get the same thrill from holding the final copy of a thesis?! I’m not quite so sure… I have recently written three books for children about play but I haven’t found a publisher yet. So in five years I’d love have the toolkit from my thesis being put into action and my picture books on the shelves of Five Leaves Bookshop and Waterstones.