Play Resources - many available to download

OPA Play Boxes
OPA has an amazing range of inspiring Play Boxes full of inspiring play goodies that you can hire at low rates to provide children and young people with new and exciting play opportunities. For a copy of the latest OPA Play Box catalogue, please click here.

Best Play
Wonderful book(let) all about what play provision should do for children. Here.

Design for Play - a guide to creating successful play spaces

A great Play England document to help ensure that play environments offer as rich a play space as possible. Dip into it here.

Take Time Out to PLAY! Leaflet

A colourful leaflet that opens out to a poster, and which aims for everyone (parents, schools, councils, planners, etc) to encourage more play. Call OPA for free copies of the leaflet.

Managing Risk in Play Provision
A four-page briefing from Play England on managing risk - but also making sure that there are opportunities for C&YP to have some risk in their play. Available here.

OPA's summary of the Playwork Principles
is available here as an A4 poster.

Play Deprivation
What happens to children if they do not play? Research continues into this important topic. A summary of information is available from Play Wales - find it here.

Oxfordshire Play Partnership (OPP)

OPP is an umbrella group of organisations that promote play and implement the Oxfordshire Play
Strategy throughout the county. The group meet four times per year and includes representatives from play organisations, councils, Play England, Oxfordshire Play Association, children's centres, extended schools, police, planners, schools, health and more. If you would like more info, or to come to a meeting, contact OPA on 01865 779474.
Current OPP Membership List is available here.

The minutes of previous OPP meetings are available here:

Play for a Change - Play, Policy and Practice: A review of contemporary perspectives
Written by Stuart Lester and Wendy Russell, and published by Play England, this includes a wealth of information about current research and thinking about play. Full report, summary and a 4-page intro paper all available here.

Nature Play: Maintenance Guide
This Play England guide is aimed at those responsible for developing, delivering and maintaining innovative natural play spaces within parks and similar spaces.  Find it here.

The Charter for Children's Play is a 4-page Play England document which sets out a vision for play, plus the basic principles of what play means for children. It aims to be a catalyst for individuals and organisations to examine and improve their provision for children and young people's play and informal recreation. It is a useful summary of the main points about play. Click here.

People Make Play
This Play England/Demos report shows how staffed play services, often run by the voluntary sector, are an increasingly vital element in the multi-agency approach to improving outcomes for children, families and communities and are also thought to be more cost-effective than established statutory services.
The findings show that staffed play services, built around the children's own ideas about how they want to play, make a significant difference to the children, parents and neighbourhoods. Full report is here.

Oxfordshire Play Strategy

Oxfordshire Play Partnership has created a county play strategy, with the aim of increasing the quantity and the quality of play opportunities our children and young people have open to them.

Play Quotes

A selection of poignant quotes about play put together by OPA. Includes quotes from Plato, Huizinga, Freud and Bruce . Available here.

An Economic Evaluation of Play Provision
Play England have produced this timely document which shows that play provision can actually save money for society, rather than costing money. Click here.

Children's Right to Play: An Examination of the Importance of Play in the Lives of Children Worldwide

Produced by the International Play Association, this is a very readable and useful document summarising the importance of play in general. Their website is at www.ipaworld.org. Summary report is here.

OPA Benefits of Play Poster

Some of the benefits of play are summarised here in an OPA poster.

The Playwork Primer
A wonderful, easy-to-read introduction and overview of playwork.
Click here.

Oxfordshire County Council

There are many useful play and playwork resources on Oxfordshire County Council’s Out of School Childcare website - click on this link: www.oxfordshire.gov.uk/outofschoolchildcare

Children's Right to Play
An examination of play in the lives of children worldwide
by Wendy Russell and Stuart Lester, December 2010
Click here.

Why Go Out?
Children, young people and parents in Oxfordshire say about going outside. Click here to see the report.

OAYP - How to Set up a Youth Club
OAYP are a youth charity who provide assistance and support in how to set up a youth club in local communities. See what they can provide help with here.