Picture a school playground without rules. One where kids freely climb trees and where risk and adventure are encouraged. Where no area is out of bounds and children are left largely unsupervised. Surely conflict and bedlam would prevail. Or maybe not, as one Auckland Primary School has discovered.

Play for Life brings you a new series of Professional Development sessions for Teachers and those working with children and young people.

This is an introductory Professional Development session for schools seeking effective techniques to improve the playtime experience for students and teachers.

Download the PDF for full details below:

Minister for Education Martin Dixon and Member for Carrum, Donna Bauer attended Kananook Primary School today for their ‘Grandparents’ Day’, to coincide with Children’s Week

Minister Dixon joined over 60 students from years 2 and 3 and their grandparents/special persons for the morning, along with Cathy Hope, author and International games expert.

Listen to a lively discussion of what kinds of things have been important to children and how we might preserve and protect those things. Presenters will talk about their experiences researching and collecting examples of children's folklore, childhood memories and the special places of childhood.

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Dear colleague

IPA extends a warm invitation to the IPA World Conference 2014 in Instanbul from 20th to 23rd May 2014. The triennial conference provides an exciting opportunity to learn, discuss and share knowledge about children’s play – covering theory, research, policy and practice.

WORK has started on a $1 million children's play area at Brimbank Park.

The playscape featuring a giant accessible bird's nest complete with eggs (pictured) is due to open early next year.

It is being built in the main visitor area of the park at Keilor.

Read More...

Call it a rare victory for the anti-PC brigade - a more challenging type of playground is here to stay, despite one local body temporarily closing a slide last week after children sustained bruising.

Steep slides and towering climbing frames have been installed in seven New Zealand locations by Wanganui company Playground Centre. One community leader welcomes the playgrounds after decades of boring swings and gentle slides, cushioned by rubber mats.

Formal schooling should be delayed until the age of six or seven because early education is causing “profound damage” to children, an influential lobby of almost 130 experts warns.

Read More at The Telegraph...

When June Factor launched Far Out, Brussel Sprout! 30 years ago this December, she had no idea the book of children's rhymes, games and puzzles would become a popular series still being published today, with the latest called Okey Dokey Karaoke!

Yet children are tradition's warmest friends; they were conservationists long before adults ever heard the word. In their games, rhymes, jokes and chants, children continue to preserve a culture – mostly invisible to adults – that stretches back hundreds of years.