Thursday 7 May 2015 1:13pm
Victoria Farmer, an Edgar Diabetes and Obesity Research PhD student and project manager of the PLAY study, gave a keynote presentation at the bi-annual New Zealand Recreation Association Conference in Hamilton on 29 April, 2015. PLAY is a large randomised controlled trial aiming to change play environments in primary schools and to investigate effects on physical activity, body weight and bullying.
Miss Farmer said participating schools were very supportive of their involvement in the PLAY Study. "All of the intervention schools made changes in their school's play environments that included varying degrees of risk and challenge. The great thing about the PLAY Study was that it was not a one-size-fits-all intervention - instead it was one that schools could tailor to suit their school and community".
Australian landscape architect and playspace expert Fiona Robbé, also speaking at the meeting, was encouraging schools in New Zealand to look at the benefits of providing more challenging play. Some principals voiced concern over the level of risk that can be assumed by schools. However, Miss Farmer believes that experiencing some level of risk in play is important: "Children need little bits of risk to be able to manage bigger risk later on."
Read the newspaper article
Playgrounds advocates say kids need more risk, Waikato Times, 29 April, 2015
Related information
- Find out more about the PLAY study
- Hear a RadioNZ interview with PLAY Principal Investigator Associate Professor Rachael Taylor (20min, 33sec)
- Visit the New Zealand Recreation Association (NZRA) website
- See the programme for the NZRA 'The City is a Playspace' conference (pdf, 69.5KB)
