PLAYSTRUCTURES and PLAY PROCESS with Jon Cree, hosted by Maria Sprostranova (GreenWise People)

A one or two-day course in building your own play structures with rope and natural materials. These two days can be done either as standalone or as two days together. The course is for educators wishing to be a little more adventurous with creative play structures at their sites, building them out of wood and rope and combining these with the natural features at your site. We will be sharing techniques and know-how on building safe but slightly risky (!) structures with children that can enhance creativity and physical play at your outdoor sites.

We will look at basic tool work, knot and rope work in order to construct ladders, ‘climbing frames’, temporary rope swings and rope courses, as well as putting up and playing with slacklines. We will look at how to work with young people in constructing basic structures that includes working with trees, or if the trees in your own settings are limited, how to construct features by adding structures such as ‘beams’ to trees and working with A frames and ‘safe anchoring’.

We will delve into the “Ludic Process” and consider how we as educators can support and adulterate play including the types of dialogue involved. We will look at the attributes we need when supporting play.

The training course will also cover all the health and safety aspects of working with ‘constructed’ play structures and ropes, looking at risk benefit assessments and key requirements.