Working Together for Childhood
The Alliance for Childhood serves as a network that facilitates reflection and action by people with concerns about the care and education of children. It is not a conventional organisation, but an expression of a willingness to work together for the betterment of the experience of childhood. It exists in the shared work and spirit of cooperation whereby all partners can find mutual support. It is a collaborative approach that is created by commitment and by the activity itself.
Alliance for Childhood Newsletter No 3
Available here
Sustain children's food campaign
The Alliance for Childhood has joined other UK children’s groups, including The Children’s Society, NCB and the Children’s Food Campaign, to call upon the Committee of Advertising Practice to change its code of practice so that all children are properly protected from junk food advertising.See the letter here and News page.
UK Alliance UK meeting
Where Children Play - Report now here.
Tuesday 24th March 2009 University of East London, Docklands Campus
Contributors: Christopher Clouder Alliance for Childhood UK: Issy Cole-Hamilton, Play England; Matt Davies Planet Earth; Sally Schweizer Early Years Adviser; Penny Wilson Play Association Tower Hamlets
Children inhabit many spaces which the use as inspiration for play – not only parks and playgrounds but woods, streets, indoors and in their imagination. The government has acknowledged the importance of providing secure places for play through the introduction last November of funding for projects creating play areas. Our contributors will share their experiences of working with children and creating places which support their enthusiasm and active enjoyment of free play. We will also have the opportunity to work with Penny Wilson and Matt Davies to go into the design process in a practical way.
Alliance for Childhood in Scotland - Edinburgh meeting
Child's Play - report now here
How we risk giving our children everything except freedom to play
Thursday 23rd April 2009 Scottish Parliament
Speakers: Christopher Clouder, Sue Palmer, Marguerite Hunter Blair
Here's an item in The Scotsman
National seminar: Just too many Practitioners
- for babies and pre-school children who need ongoing multiple interventions?
City Hospital, Birmingham. Thursday 9th July (10 till 3).
Facilitated by Peter Limbrick.
For multi-disciplinary practitioners and managers. Parents very welcome.
Discussion: Our well-intentioned response to infants with neurological impairment is to provide a separate therapist or specialist pre-school teacher for each of the multiple diagnoses and needs. This is driven by practitioners’ commitment to helping and by parents’ heartfelt need to get all good things for their child.
With more of these infants coming along, it is time to ask if there is a better way that does not subject the infant to so many people to relate to – and to so many separate programmes. We have to consider seriously whether this overload (which we would not impose on non-disabled infants) spoils the child’s chance of learning and contravenes our own commitment to genuine child-centred practice. TAC philosophy offers a way forward.
For more information and booking form, e-mail: p.limbrick@virgin.net (Places available.)
Latest circular from Planet Earth Limited
Play, play, play in the sunshine!
Planet Earth has completed a number o f n a t u r a l playground projects aimed at delivering h e a l t h y, e a r t h y nature to children in the inner cities. See Alliance partner news page
Playday 2009
will be on Wednesday 5 August. The Playday 2009 campaign theme will be: Make time!
This Playday we're asking everyone to make time for play. From parents, carers and teachers, to policy makers and planners - everyone can make time to support children’s right to play.
In our busy and overscheduled lives it’s easy to prioritise other things over play, and to think, play is something children just do. As adults, we all need to make time and space to enable children to play freely, and this is what we aim to highlight with the Playday 2009: Make time! campaign.
Play Scotland and Children in Scotland conference
Children, Risk and Responsibility -encouraging confidence in a risk-averse society.
Wednesday 7 October 2009, King Robert Hotel, Stirling
There is growing concern over the constraints imposed on the activities of children and young people by a variety of factors, particularly perceptions of risk.
This conference, organised in partnership with Children in Scotland, will consider the implications of such constraints when helping children and young people, parents and carers, develop their understanding of risk and responsibility. The programme will offer an early opportunity to consider the issues that are relevant to the government’s forthcoming Play and Risk Debate.
The conference will be chaired by Harry Harbottle, a creative play specialist and co-founder of the Rattlin’ Boag consultancy and design agency.
Speakers include: Tom Hodgkinson, editor of The Idler and author of The Idle Parent; Agnes Nairn, co-author of Consumer Kids; Adam Ingram MSP, Minister for Children and Young People; Helene Guldberg, author of Reclaiming Childhood and Tim Gill author of No Fear: growing up in a risk averse society.
Play Scotland and Tim Gill will be launching the new publication Managing Risk in Play Provision: implementation guide.
More information and booking here Book on-line here
New Report from Alliance for Childhood in the USA
Crisis in the Kindergarten: A New Report on the Disappearance of Play
New research shows that many kindergartens spend 2 to 3 hours per day instructing and testing children in literacy and math—with only 30 minutes per day or less for play. In some kindergartens there is no playtime at all. The same didactic, test-driven approach is entering preschools. But these methods, which are not well grounded in research, are not yielding long-term gains. Meanwhile, behavioral problems and preschool expulsion, especially for boys, are soaring. Read and comment on the Alliance’s new report, Crisis in the Kindergarten: Why Children Need to Play in School.
A flier and 8-page summary of the report, including recommendations for action, are also available.
To submit a comment on Crisis in the Kindergarten, click here. Please include your name, city and state, and occupation.
Press releases about the report are posted in our Newsroom.
See article in the New York Times and The Early Watch Ed Blog
New publication
21st Century Boys:
How Modern Life is driving them off the rails and how we can get them back on track
Sue Palmer
What's happening to boys? At home, they sprawl before a flickering screen, lost in a solitary, sedentary fantasy world; at school, the choice of role seems limited to nerd or thug, bullied or bullying. By the time they reach their teens, the chances of depression, self-harm, drug or alcohol abuse grow each year. In such an environment, raising boys has never been more diffcult. For the sake of their sons, parents need to know the facts about how boys develop and how best to protect them from the damaging effects of modern life. For the sake of our future, we all need to recognise the problems of 21st century boys, and to support parents in stemming thhe growing tide of detachment and disaffection. In this hugely important book, Sue Palmer assesses the issues currently confronting boys from birth to when they leave school, and explains how we can all help to ensure they emerge as healthy, normal adults. Based on the latest research from around the world, 21st Century Boys provides parents, teachers and others with a clear pathway to bringing up boys.
Quote of the month
Forty thousand generations of human beings have grown up doing this. And two generations haven't.
Why Children Need Nature Stephen Moss; Naturalworld, The Wildlife Trusts Spring 2009