Press
July 14, 2005
Traditional games bounce back in favour
A resurgence of interest in traditional games has been supported by the launch of a new project, funded by Culture Online. The Playground Fun website – jam-packed with ideas to keep your kids active – aims to get your kids logging on…and logging off in droves.
Playground Fun is a new website aimed at getting children outside playing games. From Hide & Seek to It, and from Poison to Zombie, traditional favourites meet with new games in an inspiring new project - www.playgroundfun.org.uk - launched by Culture Online, part of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (launched July 2005).
Playground Fun offers children practical suggestions and ideas about how they can get outside and start playing – at home and at school. The project helps 7–9 year olds to re-discover the fun of learning and playing together, trying games played in other counties and cultures, as well as offering children the chance to share their own favourites.
The site, featuring lots of colourful cartoon characters, includes nuts-and-bolts information about how to play games, vintage black and white film footage and guidance on how to help children enjoy group activities. There's also a fun game builder tool that allows children to create their own versions of games on the website. Teacher and parent notes are included with information about how to keep children entertained, fit, safe and well. The site aims to become a growing online compendium of games, as played by Britain's children.
David Lammy, Culture Minister, is enthusiastic about the project. He said: "More than thirty five years ago, Iona and Peter Opie published their comprehensive collection of street and playground games. What they discovered was a world full of vitality, inventiveness and unfettered imagination. Today's young people are no less inspiring than the children that the Opie's interviewed in the 1960s. Regional and cultural variations of children's games abound, even in the age of the games console and the web. Video may have killed the radio star but it's seems nothing can dampen the spirits of a playful child. Playground Fun aims to help children discover and share the joy of play."
Jonathan Drori at Culture Online said: "You might think that the games console reigns supreme but it's important to remember that outdoor games are very popular. Anyone who looks after kids knows that they often have more energy than they know what to do with. This website encourages children to share their favourite games virtually and then to play them in the real world. Playground Fun is primarily for fun, although no one can deny that play has huge physical and social benefits too."
Schools that have piloted the Playground Fun website found a marked improvement in playground behaviour. Teacher, Jo Garbutt, of Throngsley Fields Primary and Nursery School, Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, said: "The Playground Fun project has provided a superb focus for our planned school improvement work. We have seen a marked improvement in social interaction and behaviour on the playground already. We are very pleased with the positive impact it continues to have."
Bursting with worksheets and teaching ideas, Playground Fun makes learning fun with motivating lesson plans and materials. Teacher, Rachael Poulson of Rotherfield Primary School, Islington, North London said: "We have been covering healthy eating in the science class and the children have related all activities to the games on the Playground Fun website and being active. They have also talked about the historical aspects of games as part of their World War II work. As a result of the pilot, the children are working together, co-operating and they don't sulk so much!"
www.playgroundfun.org.uk
FOR PRESS INFORMATION: please call Angela Hockley on 020 7713 4019 or Graham Thomas on 020 7487 7215.
Notes to editors
Culture Online uses technology to bring people together so they can learn new skills. Culture Online, part of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, commissions interactive projects to extend access to the Arts and culture. Many of the projects involve mass participation and encourage people to connect with organisations in a fresh and exciting way. For more information visit: www.cultureonline.gov.uk
Learnthings, produces bespoke educational websites and content for third parties from concept to launch. Launched in May 2000, the business is backed by the Guardian and reflects the Guardian's commitment to education. The learnthings service includes consultancy, design, content, technology and marketing. We offer a full service consultancy or separate elements of the service to suit the client's needs. Working to a brief set by Culture Online, Learnthings designed the look and feel and the technical framework for this new website to encourage children to participate in playground games. Working directly with schools in the classroom and the playground, Learnthings researched and wrote the content in-house and devised materials to support the curriculum.
Playground Fun is one of many initiatives to complement the Government's aim of increasing physical activity and improving behaviour. Another initiative is Zoneparcs, a scheme from the DfES, with support from the DCMS. Over 750 schools are benefiting from a £12million investment to enhance primary school playgrounds. At least 400 are adopting the Zoneparc model, which zones the playground into three coloured activity areas, introduces innovative play equipment and involves pupils and lunchtime supervisors in leading play activities. Research into the impact of existing Zoneparcs shows that, as well as increasing physical activity and improving behaviour, they have developed pupils' leadership and citizenship skills and led to greater gender equality through improved access to a wider range of games for all children. In autumn, the Government will publish a summary of this research which will include advice to schools on how they can adopt the principles of Zoneparc.
SUPPORTING QUOTES
Dr David Haslam, Chair of National Obesity Forum
"The Playground Fun website has lots of practical suggestions for children who may feel self-conscious about exercise because they are obese. Activities that get them moving and that they can enjoy with friends as part of their daily routine without having to change into a special kit is a move in the right direction. Exercise doesn't need to be a big deal, it needs to be fun."
Diane Lees, Director of Museum of Childhood
"As long as there have been children, there have been games. Playground Fun is full of great archive footage and photographs of children playing together. It's a great historical record, reminding us of games played by our grandparents, and preserving some of the most popular games played by children today."
Ade Adepitan, CBBC presenter and paralympic bronze medal winner
"Playground Fun is bursting with great ideas to get kids out there playing games. We need children to re-discover the fun they can have outside in the playground with their mates. Whether you're a basketball champion or you've never had a go at scoring before, there's a game to suit you. Don't sit around at break-time, get out there and start playing."
Jo Garbutt, pilot school, Throngsley Fields Primary and Nursery School, Cambridgeshire
"The Playground Fun project has provided a superb focus for our planned school improvement work. We have seen a marked improvement in social interaction and behaviour on the playground already. We are very pleased with the positive impact it continues to have."
Catherine Howell, Collections Officer, Museum of Childhood
"Children playing games are part of a tradition that goes back thousands of years. The games may vary from place to place and the rhymes differ in language, but the time-line of play continues through the present and on to the future. Playground fun is a superb resource for recording and illustrating this tradition."
Rachael Poulson, pilot school, Rotherfield Primary School, Islington, London
"We have been covering healthy eating in the science class and the children have related all activities to the games on the Playground fun website and being active. They have also talked about the historical aspects of games as part of their WWII work. As a result of the pilot, the children are working together, co-operating and they don't sulk so much!"
Dr Nadja Reissland, psychologist specialising in children and play and lecturer at the University of Aberdeen
"The increasing rate of children who become TV addicts, computer obsessive, develop obesity and diabetes, is a sign that playground games play a vital role in the healthy development of children. Playground games develop the younger child's physical health, motor co-ordination, emotional well being and ability to co-operate with other children. Play is an important tool to teach children and to socialise children into their cultural milieu."
DID YOU KNOW…
Leafrog
Leapfrog may have been played in Ancient Greece or Rome but doesn't seem to have become a very popular game until Tudor times (around 500 years ago). In around 1560 Pieter Bruegel, a Dutch painter, painted a picture which shows lots of children playing lots of different games. Part of the picture is a group of six children playing Leapfrog. You can see this on the Playground Fun website along with black and white film footage of kids playing leapfrog in the late 1950s.
Hide and Seek
Like Tig or Tag, Hide and Seek is an ancient game having probably been played by children for hundreds or even thousands of years. An ancient Greek writer called Julius Pollux wrote a dictionary of words in around AD 180 (nearly 2,000 years ago). He describes a game called Apodidraskinda which sounds like Hide and Seek. In Tudor times (500 years ago) it was a very popular game too. A book written by Richard Huloet in 1572 describes a game called King by Your Leave. In this game, 'It' (the seeker) was called King. The first to get back to base without being seen was the winner and was King next.
What's the time, Mr Wolf?
This was a very popular game in the 1950s. It is similar to some older games known as Fox and chickens or Fox and geese. A number of books written about children's games in Victorian times mention these games. This game is played in many different countries such as Spain, Germany and South America. In Italy it is called Lupo della ore? The game of asking Mr Wolf questions and the other players being safe until Mr Wolf chases them is very similar to the story of Little Red Riding Hood.
ON THE WEBSITE – www.playgroundfun.org.uk
A website for primary-age children, easy navigation and bright appealing layout allows them to search through lots of new games and variations on old ones. Rules show how to play the game, the album section shows pictures of other children playing the game and facts gives some history of the game or how the game is played in other countries.
Children can add their own games and photographs using the easy to use unique build a game tool and share their ideas with other children through the website. Supported by an investigation guide, children can learn how to write games and rules, take good photos and interview family and friends.
Message board help children to share their thoughts on different games and read about how others have enjoyed them. They can also vote for their favourite games.
Teachers will find materials to integrate the games into teaching and learning programmes; parents will find out how they can help their children to enjoy and maintain an active lifestyle.
You don't have to be a 9-year-old to add a game to the site – add your favourites or create a new one!
FACTS AND FIGURES
Obesity, both in children and adults, is increasing and poses a real threat to our health, storing up trouble for later through diabetes, heart disease and cancer.
The Public Health White Paper sets out a range of measures which will enable us to begin to get to grips with this epidemic and support people in living healthier lives.
The Physical Activity Action Plan published in March 2005 sets out how the Government will deliver the physical activity commitments in the White Paper.
Between 1995 and 2003, the prevalence of obesity among children aged 2 to 10 rose from 9.9% to 13.7%.
The percentage of children aged 2 to 10 who were overweight (including those who were obese) rose from 22.7% in 1995 to 27.7% in 2003.
Overall, levels of obesity were similar for both boys and girls aged 2 to 10.
For boys, obesity rose from 9.6% in 1995 to 14.9% in 2003, for girls obesity rose from 10.3% in 1995 to 12.5% in 2003.
Between 1995 and 2003, levels of obesity rose among children aged 2 to 10.
However, increases in obesity prevalence were most significant among older children aged 8 to 10, rising from 11.2% in 1995 to 16.5% in 2003.
The Government has set out its commitment to tackling obesity through its ambitious target to halt the year on year increase in obesity in children under 11 by 2010 – a responsibility jointly held between the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Department for Education and Skills and the Department of Health.
FOR PRESS INFORMATION: please call Graham Thomas on 020 7487 7215 or Angela Hockley on 020 7713 4019.