News from the Play Australia team...

Is it too late to say Happy New Year?

Midway through the month of January we are re-emerging from the Play Australia holiday cocoon and ready for action! As a very small team with a lot of activity we believe in the importance of the annual ‘switch off' and hopefully you too have had time to reconnect and recalibrate away from the madness of daily life.

2024 is a special year for Play Australia as we celebrate 110 years!
We were founded back in 1913/14 by a group of Victorian citizens committed to achieving better outcomes for children. In 1914 that was about access to playgrounds for children playing on the streets of inner city Melbourne. Over the past 110 years that brief has expanded and developed and in 2024 we want to ensure we take our advocacy and support to the next level.

We hope you will enjoy what we have on offer for our members and take part in the many opportunities for knowledge sharing, advocacy and learning.

Yours playfully,

Robyn, Joanne, and Peter

We are really excited to launch our 2024 webinar series with a special guest live from the UK – Dr Wendy Russell, UK Play Academic and Play Champion!

Play Wales has published a summary this past week, of its forthcoming publication, Playing and being well. Undertaken by Dr Wendy Russell, with Mike Barclay and Ben Tawil from Ludicology, it’s a review of recent research into children’s play, social policy, and practice, with a focus on Wales. 

The review is huge and has four sections:

• Contemporary issues in childhood studies and policy studies
• The role of play in children’s wellbeing
• Where children play
• Practice-based examples of supporting children’s play in both the public realm and the institutions of childhood.

What much of the contemporary research – across all sorts of academic disciplines – shows, are that things like play and wellbeing aren’t individual issues but instead arise through relations and the conditions of children’s lives. When those conditions are favourable, children can create their own wellbeing through playing.

The review proposes a relational capability approach to accounting for and responding to those conditions.

Register for the webinar to find out what that means!

Read the briefing paper on the latest literature review on Playing and being well.

Playing and being well was commissioned by Play Wales to provide current evidence to inform the Welsh Government in its Ministerial Review of Play.

Paediatricians say risky play can be good for kids (Jan 2024)
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/some-risky-play-can-be-good-for-children-canadian-pediatricians-say-1.6741810

Why you need more play in your life! (Oct 2023)
https://www.nextavenue.org/surprising-reasons-why-you-need-more-play-in-life/

Parents misunderstand importance of guided play (Dec 2023)
2 articles!

https://www.frontiersin.org/news/2023/12/15/frontiers-developmental-psychology-playful-learning-us-parents-survey

https://www.earlyyearseducator.co.uk/news/article/guided-play-can-support-key-aspects-of-children-s-learning-and-development-new-research-shows

New Program gives kids control of their school run (Jan 2024)
https://education.nsw.gov.au/news/latest-news/new-program-gives-kids-control-of-their-own-school-run

Scottish Government’s bill for children’s rights (Dec 2023)
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/dec/07/holyrood-passes-revised-bill-on-childrens-rights-after-uk-challenge

National Play, Playing and Playwork Conference 8-10 March

Malarkey Playwork & Marc Armitage at Play are once again returning with their National Play Conference in Melbourne on 8, 9 &10 March 2024.

Our Play Australia CEO, Robyn Monro Miller, and other Play Australia Members including Daniel Burton and Kylie Keene, will be presenting as part of the event which features six keynote speakers, eight principal speakers and twenty-four breakout speakers!

There are a limited number of places still left at the lower rate of $825 all-in, and once they've gone, they've gone! This will be well worth dipping into you training budget for.

Tickets at www.marc-armitage.com/conference24 and more details at www.facebook.com/OzPlayConference.

QCAN – the Queensland Peak Body for OSHC Saturday 23 March

Always advocating for play, the QCAN conference is sure to have some play on the agenda. Plus, keynote speaker Nathan Wallis talking about neuroscience and children.
https://www.qcan.org.au/conference

National Sports and Physical Activity Convention, Melb 27-28 June 

Early Bird registration has just opened for this conference which features a play stream hosted by PLAY AUSTRALIA. For those of you wanting to come in a day early, on the 26 June we will also be running a play tour, always lot of fun for those who attend!
https://nationalsportsconvention.com.au/program-2024/ 

Have you got a conference coming up? Email us with the details info@playaustralia.org.au

Our new self-paced learning modules on Playspace Development and Maintenance have had great reviews! Thank you to members who have shared their opinions on LinkedIn.

A reminder that you have 12 months to work through the 7-hour course and it is a great PD to start off the new year.