There was an accident at Randwick Playground when a 2 year old girl fell and hit her face on the edge of the metal slide. I wont go into details here suffice to say it was serious with lots of blood - she is OK now but will still need treatment. The problem was that there was a hole in the ground in front of the slide that played a part in her tripping - the hole has been repaired very promptly - see photo left - and there are moves to ensure such risks are reduced in the future.To me this raises several issues - in such a playground it should be safe - that is what we have come to expect. However I am also aware that research shows that our 'safe playgrounds' and safety-orientated society leads to children being less able to cope with uncertainty...
“I am convinced that standardised play equipment is dangerous. When the distance between all the rungs on the climbing net or the ladder is exactly the same, the child has no need to concentrate on where he puts his feet. This lesson cannot be carried over into all the knobbly and asymmetrical forms with which one is confronted throughout life.”
Helle Nebelong, creator of natural public spaces in Copenhagen
It may be unrealistic to think that we can restore children to the ‘free-range childhoods’ enjoyed by earlier generations, but we can take steps to lessen the constraints. Our public spaces is one key area we can work on. Too often regular free-spirited, playful engagement with nature is missing - even our playgrounds can be devoid of greenery.
There is now a growing movement that is calling for a halt to more sterile playgrounds with tubular steel, rubber surfacing and primary coloured plastics galore. This is just what Freiburg, a German city has done for over a decade. Instead at a fraction of the cost they have built over 40 ‘nature playgrounds’ designed with a lifetime in mind.The results are diverse spaces with mounds, ditches, logs, boulders, wild flowers, secret corners and shady spots (see 'den' created above in Randwick Woods). The construction materials are a model of sustainability compared to the raw materials and processes used to make conventional playgrounds. There is also research showing children benefit enormously from wild nature play areas.
Not surprisingly research shows more children staying away from television. Britain is a long way behind much of Europe, but here too innovative projects are appearing: ‘Den day’ in Newcastle, Forest Schools, ‘Wild About Play’ in the South West of England, park keepers returning as ‘play rangers’ in Bath and other places.
To me we could benefit from having both the wild/nature play areas and playgrounds with their swings, slides and roundabouts. In the latter it is clear we need to be as safe as possible.
1 comment:
I am unsure if the play equipment still comes under the control of the village hall committee. I would have thought that the parish council should take resposibility for funding the insurance and maintenance with an overall contract with the SDC to cover all such areas throughout the district. It is unfortunate that we live at a time when any incident such as this raises the possibility of being sued when infact we can fall over and bump our bodies on so many different things. It always surprises me that the most dangerous risk is walking on the pavement when we are just a couple of feet from possible serious injury yet how often do we see young children running in front of their perents without the bat of an eyelid. We take this risk for granted everyday and only seem to worry when they come to actually cross the road.
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