Hulya Gilbert is an urban planner, demographer and researcher with over 15 years of industry experience with both local government and non-government sectors. She was awarded her PhD in 2020 and the topic was children's everyday mobilities and low carbon living.

Hulya says, "Many public places, such as local streets, become hostile environments for children and young people as these places lack affordances for informal sports, free play or just to 'hang out' with friends, all of which are critical for their physical, social, mental and emotional development."

This presentation will explore the distinctive ways that children’s everyday lives and movements are constrained by car-privileging policies and discourses. 

Jill Rice, Executive Officer of Play Aotearoa, the New Zealand branch of IPA World, has been designing play spaces for children for over 30 years. 

Jill's designs respond thoughtfully to the unique attributes of a space and the aspirations of local communities in order to achieve the best outcomes for our children and young people. 

She particularly enjoys hearing from the children themselves about what activities and opportunities they would like to engage with in her design process and uncovering the stories of the local area that might be told through her designs. Jill says that one of the common mistakes we can make is to "over-design" spaces.

Join Jill to discuss how to ask the right questions to unlock ideas and potential. 

...Perceptions, realities, aspirations and then there's testing.

Grant Humphreys ‌and Martin Sheppard ‌will discuss the complexities of surfacing across the sports sector to be followed by a Q & A. 

This event provides an excellent opportunity to access expert information from two leaders in their fields, plus a unique learning session on standards and how they relate to sporting surfaces.

Martin has diverse experience in UK and Australia and is passionate about social inclusion, where everyone should have the opportunity to be active, to play and recreate and participate in community sport. 

Grant is the Owner/Director of Acousto-Scan and Playtest, and a key member of the Playground Standards Committee. He is the national ‘expert’ on all matters ‘testing’ of ground surfacing used across the country in parks, playgrounds and sporting
environments.

Professor David Eager was Chair of the playground standards committee for 13 years.

In this session David will present 25 years of research into the testing of sands suitable for use as IAS within children’s playgrounds.

David will provide information discovered from his research in the use of sand as undersurfacing material in playgrounds and he will give you some practical tips on what to look out for when choosing a suitable sand.

Sue is a Senior Lecturer in Early Childhood Education at the University of New England (UNE), New South Wales. She is an experienced practitioner, academic and author in early childhood education with a focus on education for sustainability, outdoor playspaces and nature play.

In this presentation 'Critical times for change in early childhood education for sustainability' Sue advocates for change in our ways of being with each other and the Earth. Without change, the influences of global climate change are compelling and lifelong for young children.

Early childhood educators have a leading role in education for sustainability, but there are also key roles for local governments, designers, training institutions and policy makers. 

We are thrilled to announce that starting in 2022 we will be hosting an Online Learning Series for Early Years services.

This program will be free to attend for anyone committed to the promotion of outdoor play for all children in services for children aged 0-6years.

The series will focus on significant issues facing services today.  Watch the next edition of Member News for details.

The International Physical Literacy Association is hosting six online conferences across the world. 

The Australia Session, will be held on Friday 22nd October 2021 at Midday-4pm Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST).  

The conference will be hosted by physical literacy advocates including world-leading keynote speakers, invited presentations, delegate presentation sessions (research and practical) and opportunities for discussion and networking.

Click below for registration details. 

A timely document by Associate Professor Sebastian Pfautsch and Dr Agnieszka Wujeska-Klause, Western Sydney University as we head into the hottest time of the year. 

"Encouraging and supporting outdoor play is particularly important today, where the daily time interval children are engaging in physical activity is contracting. However, the lack of shade and hot playground equipment make it unsafe for children to enjoy playgrounds in summer. This situation is particularly problematic in times where summer heat is increasing as result of climate change, which already limits the time for safe outdoor play."