As teachers, we seek to develop children. There is a danger, however, that we focus exclusively on their intellectual and physical capabilities, which are easier to observe and measure than their interior world. We live in an age dominated by league tables and value-added measures, but are these really the only things that matter?

As an artist and the co-founder/director of a company that designs interactive play areas in a broad range of schools, I believe that imaginative play is fundamental to children’s physical, social, emotional and intellectual development. By that I mean all children, irrespective of ability, personal circumstances or educational needs.

With specifi c regard to children with SEND, however, my experience has shown me that imaginative play evokes a deeper response from these children than anything else you might do with them.

Imaginative play is inclusiveWhen children play imaginatively, there are no differences. Through their joint adventures, they explore familiar experiences, create new ones, develop ideas and share these with their peers. By its very nature, imaginative play is inclusive.

Imaginative play encompasses a host of developmental domainsImaginative play provides children with opportunities to:

● act out storylines, and then try out different courses of action against these scenarios in a safe and controlled way as they develop their social and emotional skills

● build executive function and develop self-regulation, self-control, memory and impulse-control

– fundamental building blocks to subsequent learning

● encounter and negotiate boundaries, assess physical and social risk and develop the resilience to have a go and try again when things don’t work out – all characteristics of effective learners

● learn to cope with feelings and express them appropriately, for example by revisiting upsetting experiences in the context of an imaginative role-play

● begin to understand their strengths and weaknesses and therefore assess their own capacity, not in relation to their special educational needs, but themselves as individuals.

Imaginative play doesn’t have to cost the earthYou don’t need to have acres of land or a massive budget to fi re children’s

Dens made from pyramids can be as large as you wish and take on different shapes

Helen Law offers ideas for creating interesting, open-ended environments where children can develop physically, socially, emotionally and intellectually

You don’t need a massive budget to fi re children’s imagination

Imaginative play

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imagination. In fact some of the best play experiences are inspired by the simplest materials.

The key is to create a stimulating, open-ended environment that scaffolds children in their play and then supplement this with skilfully chosen resources that will enhance the play as it develops.

The secret world of densPrivate dens give children space to refl ect upon their learning, develop their imaginary worlds and learn to negotiate the real world in a safe way. When children play dens, they develop their own language, rules, customs and games in a simple parody of real life.

Den building is crucial to children’s development, yet the practice is in danger of dying out as children are lured away by electronic devices and their parents become increasingly wary of letting them out on their own.

Dens have even virtually disappeared from children’s literature, as book critic Dinah Hall notes in an article for The Guardian (http://bit.ly/sc221-16).

Choosing materialsOne of the most versatile materials for den building is bamboo. Cheap, renewable and easy to obtain, it is strong

enough to form the structure yet light enough for young children to handle without adult help. It’s also quite safe as long as you teach them a few simple rules, like holding the canes to point downwards when carrying them to avoid hurting anyone.

Use masking tape to bind the canes together, as it is easy for little fi ngers to tear – especially if you put it in a sellotape holder – and easy to remove again when the time comes to take the den down.

For outside dens that will stay in place for a while, cable ties provide a more robust alternative. Once again, with a little concentration, even very young children can use these, and the process of threading the tie of the cable through the eye helps to develop their fi ne motor skills.

Creating the structureSome of the strongest structures in nature incorporate triangles, and that in itself is a useful lesson for children to learn.

One approach is to put pupils into groups of three and get each child to construct a triangle, and then combine these to create a pyramid. If you give different groups different sizes of cane, when you put everyone’s pyramids together, you could have little tunnels and dens running off from a larger central part.

Den building is crucial to children’s development

Children create a den by binding pyramids together with masking tape

Catcote School (now Catcote Academy) in Hartlepool is a secondary school for students with a range of special educational needs. One of its rooms is a bland conservatory area that is always too hot or too cold. The school invited us to spend two weeks with students and staff to help them create a sensory den and transform this drab environment into an exciting learning space.

We started by running a workshop where we worked together to make a large den out of bamboo, and then provided lots of materials which the students used to cover it, holding these in place with pegs.

They soon started to dress up and explored the many textures of the fabrics we had brought in. They acted out the story of Goldilocks and then went into more free-fl ow play.

From temporary creative space to permanent fi xture The sensory den proved so successful, the decision was taken to make it a permanent fi xture. So We set to work with the students to construct a more solid structure with a wheeled base, a shadow screen at one end, coloured roof windows and an interior bench.

This engaged them in all sorts of curriculum-related learning, from maths (measuring, calculating mass and volume and describing these using the correct mathematical terms) to business (working to a budget, calculating how many metres of tubing we would need and what

that would cost) and, of course, provided endless opportunities for self-expression and creativity.

When their work of art was fi nally complete, we wheeled it into the centre of the room and they sat inside to admire their handiwork. There was a real sense of calm.

Creating a sensory den in a special school

Students begin their planning

Feather dusters make colourful, tactile props

An exciting sensory den begins to take shape It was so successful, students created a permanent structure

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A good idea for a semi-permanent outdoor den is to build it against something stable, like a fence, for added support. Take around 20 canes and drop them higgledy-piggledy onto the ground so they fall in a crisscross pattern. Then ask the children to secure each intersection with a cable tie to create a latticework panel. Once they have made several of these, stand them up together, tie in some larger bamboos horizontally between the tops, and in no time at all the framework is complete.

EmbellishmentsChildren can now turn their thoughts to decoration. Some may want to create a cosy little home by collecting soft materials to snuggle down in, while others may turn it into an outlaws’ secret hideout. The beauty of an open-ended, homemade den is that it can be anything the children want it to be.

Have a variety of textiles to hand, which the children can drape over the den and fi x in place with clothes pegs, or wrap around themselves to stimulate imaginative role-play. Throw in some colourful, tactile props – everyday household items like mop heads and feather dusters are ideal – then give the children a few ideas to get them started.

Would this furry green material make a good monster? Could this shiny cloth be used for a spaceman? However, they are not limited by your suggestions, and the same fabrics could equally well inspire a frog prince or a silver unicorn.

For indoor dens, brightly coloured voiles and nets make excellent coverings and can be embellished with all sorts of adornments, such as ribbons, beads, sequins or tinkling bells. These fabrics have the added advantage of allowing you

to discreetly keep an eye on the children without robbing them of the feeling that they are in their own little private world.

The important thing is to let them take the lead whilst you facilitate their learning by providing well-chosen materials and skillfully supporting them to develop and expand their ideas.

Creating a role-play roomAnother way of scaffolding children’s learning is to develop a role-play room.

In one school where we worked, when allowed to choose what they wanted to do during ‘Golden Time’, the children always opted to go back to nursery to play shops, indicating their need to work through this stage of imaginative play. So we worked with the school to develop a sensory room that incorporated open-ended role-play opportunities with jungle and outer-space themes, a French café and a shop.

The children swiftly renamed this the Magic Room, indicating just how engaged they were by the project. Meanwhile, in terms of developing their ability to express themselves and move their learning forward, it proved very effective.

Before children can write about shops or understand the role a shop might play in a story, they need to have experienced all that shopping entails. The same is true of any context; children who have never set foot in a forest will not be able to write about one.

One child who struggled with writing came to us at the end, eager to show us what he had written and he then said: ‘You won’t be able to read it but I will read it to you.’ He was so proud.

PlaygroundsA playground should be an exciting space where the children can interact with the natural world and develop imaginatively.

When considering the design, thought should be given to the different zones, how these will be used and how they complement each other. Then a few carefully chosen components can be the catalyst for imaginative opportunities and learning leaps.

One feature that offers abundant learning opportunities is a water zone. The starting point could be play streams with log channels and paddle pools for the water to trickle through. A child-operated push tap could be installed and lots of pebbles placed around the stream so the children can mix these with the water and watch the colours deepen.

The addition of balance scales allows them to experience fi rst hand what weight actually means and see how adding an extra pebble or a splash of water tips the balance, while inexpensive trugs can be supplied for transporting the water and pebbles.

The provision of a second pebble pit gives the children somewhere purposeful to take their cargo, and a pulley system between the two pits works well to develop problem-solving and cooperative skills.

As a fi nishing touch, we like to hide a dinosaur skeleton under the pebbles for the children to dig down and discover. In one school, staff decided to keep this

Children who have never set foot in a forest can’t write about one

Brightly coloured voiles and nets make ideal coverings for an indoor den

A child loads pebbles into a trug

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secret from the children and two whole terms went by before they came upon it by accident one day in the course of their play. Imagine their delight and the learning opportunities that came from this.

Choosing play equipmentA climbing frame comes in a standard size with a uniform distance between the rungs. Children soon learn what each footfall feels like; it is unchanging and repetitive, simply a route from A to B.

When they climb a tree, on the other hand, they encounter changes in depth, irregularity, and a variety of possible routes that challenge them to apply their ingenuity. They also learn to assess risk and develop the skills to self-manage it. This type of climbing allows children to engage in physical challenges at their own level of ability.

That is why we favour climbing structures made from natural materials, such as oak, whose branches twirl around to create all sorts of interesting shapes. Moreover, in terms of imaginative play,

these structures can be whatever the children want them to be, from a rocket or a castle, to a dragon or an elephant – unlike, say, a pre-designed pirate ship that can never be anything else.

Hills are another feature that can scaffold learning. You can roll things down its slopes to discover gravity, use it as a lookout post for a Roman guard or incorporate it into stories and rhymes. We know a teacher who frequently takes the children to their hill to act out all-time favourites like We’re all going on a bear

hunt and Jack and Jill. Children who struggle in a classroom,

for instance those with ADHD, often fl ourish in a stimulating outdoor environment when they are allowed to challenge themselves. Indeed, these children may become natural leaders, helping younger or less confi dent children to overcome obstacles or instigating elaborate role-plays.

Helen Law is the co-founder and co-director of Infi nite Playgrounds

Secondary school playgrounds can be very spartan and bare, and when we fi rst visited Teesdale School in County Durham, it proved to be no exception.

There wasn’t even a bench to sit on and students had to go onto the playing fi eld for a bit of peace, and even here they had to sit on the ground. Imagine what that is like for a Year 7 child who has just arrived from primary school, where outdoor spaces tend to be colourful and interesting. Then there’s the intimidating presence of older students, who can seem like lumbering giants when you are only 11. Learning to cope with break time can be one

of the greatest challenges children face at transition.

The school was keen to address these issues and had asked us to work with the school council to come up with some ideas.

We spent a week with the students, exploring the grounds, discussing how they felt about different areas, what they normally did there and what they would like to do if these spaces were redesigned. To collate our ideas, we annotated a map of the grounds with Post-it notes marking out zoned areas for different activities.

The project concluded with a day outside, where we set up a role-play using Dorothy Heathcote’s Mantle of the Expert technique (creating a fi ctional context where participants work together as a team to fulfi l a task or commission – www.mantleoftheexpert.com). In this instance, the students were derailed train survivors and their task was to set up camp. The only things they had at their disposal were bamboos, cable ties and a bag of vegetables.

They busied themselves building dens, and then made a campfi re to cook a wonderful soup, which even students who normally refused to eat vegetables thought was delicious. Finally, they used charcoal from the fi re’s dying embers to write messages to appeal for rescue.

That wasn’t the end of the story, however. The students were so enthused by the experience, the school arranged further desert island role-plays, which led to a request to spend a weekend camping at school. This

was a huge success, supported by their teacher’s confi dence in enabling them to use the environment, apply their ingenuity and follow their interests imaginatively in whatever direction a given role-play might take them. What had started as a fi ctional adventure had spilled over into real life.

Meanwhile, the school council had added an extra item to its list of proposals for the school grounds – a space for vegetable beds. The school agreed, and money was put aside for the development.

Improving the outdoor environment in a mainstream secondary school

A tree trunk provides more challenge than a climbing frame

His peers annotate the map with Post-it notes

The students’ experiences culminate in a camping weekend

FIND OUT MORE

A student draws a map of the playground

The Communication Friendly Spaces™ (CFS™) Approach developed by Elizabeth Jarman focuses on the role of the environment in supporting speaking and listening skills, emotional well-being, physical development and general engagement. http://bit.ly/sc221-02

Infi nite Playgrounds specialises in designing educational play areas and intriguing environments from natural materials. www.infi niteplaygrounds.co.uk

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