PlayEducation, in conjunction with Wolverhampton City Council presented:

PlayEd 2007

( The 18^th Play and Human Development Meeting)

on the 16^th and 17^th of October 2007 at Wolverhampton Science Park.

It was entitled

Schools of Thought and Application

Or What should we do with what we know?

And included Louise Chawla, Professor of Planning and Urban Design in the College of Architecture and Planning at the University of Colorado at Denver, author of 'In the First Country of Places: Nature Poetry and Childhood Memory', and the beautiful ‘Spots of Time’.

Gordon Burghardt, Alumni Distinguished Professor in Psychology and Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Tennessee, author of ‘The Evolutionary Origins of Play Revisited’ and the highly acclaimed ‘The Genesis of Animal Play’ (2005).

And Clionagh Boyle, Director of Derry Children’s Commission, who delivered this year’s Frank King Memorial Lecture entitled ‘Play for a Change’. Clionagh’s presentation also included the first showing outside Ireland of Derry Children’s Commission’s new film, ‘Once upon a time there was Play’.

The cast also included: Mick Conway, Jackie Jeffrey, Stephen Rennie, Stuart Lester, Gordon Sturrock, Jayne Shenstone, Perry Else, Arthur Battram and Penny Wilson who all facilitated the Schools, and Morgan Saxby, Zoe Akamiotaki, Mark Gladwin, Harry Shier, Stuart Lester, Josephine Seccombe, Pete King who gave papers/presentations and Gill Evens and Jess Milne who led a discussion on PlayWales new film, ‘Pushing Eddie in the Nettles with Connor’.

‘Arguably the BEST PlayEd ever’.

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Bob Hughes new book, PlayTypes – Speculations and Possibilities can be purchased from the London Centre for Playwork Education and Training, Block D, Barnesbury Complex, Offord Road, London N1 1QG or e mail ncpelondon@aol.com

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Bob is still working for four days a month on Islington Play Association’s Active Kids on Adventure Playground’s project. The findings (too date) from that study can be found in:

Hughes, B. (2007) Does adventure playground modification affect the intensity of the play that takes place there? PlayRights (The Official News and Features Service of The International Play Association) Issue 2/07

Hughes, B. (2007) Do locomotor play levels change following environmental modification? In Jambor, T., and Gils, J.V. (Eds.) Several Perspectives on Children’s Play. Scientific Reflections for Practitioners. London : Garant.