News
Below are vital snippets from around our sector - information as and when we get it - check
here first! If you have some news which you feel would be helpful to colleagues then please
do contact us.
New playscheme training
We've had a lot of requests for a one day course from people who couldn't
put on our three day Playwork Basics Plus training course. And so due to popular demand; you
can now book our new one day playscheme course, 'Playwork for
Playschemes'. But do book quickly as it's already been popular and there aren't that many days left
before playschemes start (scary but true!).
Resource bargains!
Due to the wonders of technology we've been able to lose one of our offices and when we were clearing it out last week we found a few boxes of books we thought we'd already sold! We'd also like to offer a couple of our bigger books for sale to make a bit more room in the office, so for a limited period we have these great publications at bargain prices;
 Activities on a Plate and Global Glue - nearly 100 activity ideas for just £15.
Therapeutic Playwork Reader one - playwork theory at half price just £9.
The Story Pack - ideas for story-telling also half price just £8.
| Best Playwork Training Provider 2010 Well, thank you very much for voting us the Best Playwork Training Provider! We
received the award at the 8th National Playwork Conference in Eastbourne in March, much to our
surprise and delight! The (very playful!) 'Cuckoo on a Stick' trophy (as one of our trainers christened it!)
provides a lot of entertainment value in our office, and even had an outing to a local coffee shop recently
when Shelly and Jackie put it on the table to denote an official Common Threads meeting! It was really
satisfying to know that so many people voted for us and that you feel that we do a better job than
organisations with far more resources than we have - so thanks, we'll keep it up! |
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Play Poll results
Our very first (and fairly unscientific!) Play Poll asked: 'Do playworkers facilitate playfulness?'
and our survey said...
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Yes - 87% |
No - 11% |
Don't know - 2% |
Good to know that you agree with us - or that we agree with you! We're intrigued to know what the next
results are going to be - we've taken bets in the office! Click here to tell us what you think...
Playwork Level 3 training initiative
The Children's Workforce Development Council are helping to deliver the Children's Plan commitment to provide funded training for 4,000 playworkers to achieve Level 3 qualifications by 2011.
The vision is for a playwork workforce that is qualified to at least Level 3 where appropriate and can make a full contribution to the Every Child Matters agenda. W:
www.cwdcouncil.org.uk.
Children's Play: New Goals for the Future The International Council for Children's Play (ICCP) has announced details for the 25th ICCP World Play Conference. The venue will be the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, Portugal on the 16, 17 and 18
June 2010.
W: www.commonthreads.org.uk/events and W:
www.iccp-play.org.
Playwork and the EYFS
The Early Years Foundation Stage is now a statutory requirement for all schools and Early Years
providers working with children from birth to the end of the academic year in which a child has their fifth birthday.
But of course this will only have an effect in playwork settings where children could be four or five years' old.
For all the latest news see our special EYFS section.
Twitter!
For 15 years now Shelly has been 'twittering' around the office
and so frankly the rest of us are indebted to those nice people at Twitter for
creating something that means she can think random thoughts out loud without
disturbing the rest of us...! Shelly 'tweets' about her research work, Common Threads happenings and wider issues on working in children's play, so if you'd like to keep up to date in this way please
visit: W: www.twitter.com/shelnews.
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