The Play Well Podcast Play Scotland

Amy Woodhouse is the Chief Executive Officer of Parenting across Scotland - speaking up for and with parents and families in Scotland. Prior to this role, she was Head of Policy, Projects and Participation for Children in Scotland, a position she held for eight years. 

Earlier in her career she worked as a researcher in the mental health sector and has a particular interest in how music, and the arts more widely, can be used to promote mental health and well-being. She is currently a Board Member of Scottish Ensemble, a pioneering collective of outstanding musicians.

Amy recently participated in a Churchill Fellowship research project that looked at Increasing Children and Young People’s Access to Hobbies and Leisure Activities (churchillfellowship.org). Her fellowship focused on national approaches to improving children and young peoples’ access to hobbies, learning from the experiences of Finland and Iceland. In her own spare time she is a tap-dancer, sometime painter, terrible but enthusiastic guitar player and lover of long-distance walks.

The Opentree Foundation (Project: Toybank — Development Through Play) Toybank — Development Through Play is the flagship project of Mumbai-based non-profit The Opentree Foundation, which was founded in 2004. Toybank creates safe spaces for at-risk children with a focus of mainstreaming play-based learning in India. We adopt a Conscious Play™ approach to enable children from vulnerable communities to alleviate stress, build resilience and overcome probable adversity. Through the Conscious Play™ approach, the programmes focus on children's critical thinking, communication, and socio-emotional learning. We set up play centres in partnership with Nonprofit Organisations, Community-Based Organisations, government and low-income semi-government schools, and government and non-government CICs (Child in Institutional Care). Through advocating for the Right to Play, we aim to bring about a change at the policy level to make Play an integral part of children’s learning. Currently, Toybank works with 77,000+ children, across 623 play centres in seven districts of Maharashtra, India. 

Shweta Chari
Co-founder and CEO, Toybank — Development Through Play
Shweta has been a champion of children’s Right to Play for over two decades and has been working towards mainstreaming play and play-based learning in India. A creative facilitator, Shweta is an engineer by education. She was selected for the Harvard Business School — Strategic Nonprofit Management — India programme with a full scholarship. She has won prestigious accolades for spearheading Toybank in its efforts to bridge the gap between the developmental needs of at-risk children and their emotional well-being and cognitive development through Play. With The Opentree Foundation, Shweta has brought together a team of passionate changemakers and subject matter experts who have helped make learning a joyful and fun experience for underserved children.

Pete Moorhouse is an early years creative consultant, researcher, author and artist educator based in the UK.  He is an associate trainer for Early Education delivering training nationally and overseas and is also a Froebel Tutor for the Froebel Trust. His work in school is centred around nurturing children's creativity inspired by Froebelian principles and the approach in Reggio Emilia. Pete is a leading authority on woodwork in Early Years education and has written several books and journal articles, including ‘Learning Through Woodwork’ (Routledge) as well as books on outdoor learning. He is currently working on his latest book – ‘Creativity in Practice: Nurturing creative and critical thinking in early childhood education’. He was awarded an honorary research fellowship from the University of Bristol and is currently researching creative progression in early education. Pete was also awarded a Churchill Fellowship to undertake international research into best woodworking practices in education. Pete won the national award (2019) from the Creative Learning Guild for his work promoting creativity in education and is Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. 

Yvonne Young is an Early Years Officer with West Lothian Council. Her ‘Wonderful woodworking’ journey began three years ago whilst completing the Froebel in Childhood Practice course with the University of Edinburgh, sparking her interest in play through a Froebelian lens. Her project has since sparked an initiative linking West Lothian College and West Lothian STEM to offer woodworking opportunities within primary one classes, with 50 teachers embracing this. After completing CPD training with Pete Moorhouse, he awarded her the first-ever Big Bang Woodwork Award last April to celebrate her achievements in embedding woodworking across her previous ElC and School community. She continues to promote the idea that every day can be a wonderful woodworking day! 

Catch up with Yvonne, Pete and Fiona in this latest episode.

Dr Naomi Lott is the John Fell Research Fellow, at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights, where she is Co-Investigator on the project ‘Developing a Framework for Implementing the Right to Play’. Naomi is also a Lecturer in Law at UCL.

Naomi has recently completed her ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Oxford, Faculty of Law, where she was Principal-Investigator on the project ‘Advancing the Development and Application of the Right to Play’. Naomi completed a PhD at the University of Nottingham on the child's right to play (Article 31, UNCRC), examining the right from conception through to implementation. This research has recently been published in 'The Right of the Child to Play: From Conception to Implementation' (Routledge, 2023).

Naomi holds a LLM in Human Rights Law and a Masters in Socio-Legal Research Methods from the University of Nottingham, and a degree in International Politics from Aberystwyth University. Naomi has conducted research for/funded by the United Nations University, Delta 8.7, the Rights Lab at the University of Nottingham,the ERC, the Walk Free Foundation, and the ILO and IOM.

Here, she speaks with Play Scotland's Chief Executive, Marguerite Hunter Blair, and our Director of Projects, Cherie Morgan, about the Child's right to play.

The Right of the Child to Play: From Conception to Implementation - 1s (routledge.com)

Delta 8.7 | United Nations University (unu.edu)

Winning research proposals: 16 Junior Researchers Awarded Fellowships and Seed Grants (ilo.org)

NB: Due to poor internet connection, this episode has some glitching. We have edited this where possible. Thank you for listening!

This month we celebrate 35 years of Care and Learning Alliance in the Highlands! We speak with the Chief Executive, Jaci Douglas and the Head of Quality, Learning and Workforce Development, Corrina Shearer about all things CALA and play.

Care and Learning Alliance (CALA)

Mick Conway started his playwork career on Bermondsey adventure playground in 1978. He went on to become Director of Hackney Play Association where he was a founder of Playday, created the Quality in Play system and was a consultant on development of the Playwork Principles. He helped set up London Play and Play England and ended up back where he started, working on adventure playgrounds in Islington for a change. These days he’s kept busy by three grandchildren and two great grandchildren.