National Play Day celebrated at Birchwood

Birchwood Leisure Centre Playscheme, the regular holiday playscheme organised and run by Hatfield Town Council, played host to a morning of old-fashioned games and activities to mark National Play Day on Wednesday 1 August 2007.

The idea of the day was to encourage children to be more social and creative in their play, to enjoy playing outside and to show them how their parents used to play with little money or resources available.

Children and adults alike had the opportunity to join in activities such as marbles, jacks, skipping, hopscotch, two-ball and cat’s cradle in the back car park at Birchwood Leisure Centre.

The Mayor and Mayoress of Hatfield, Councillors Mick and Linda Clark, along with Deputy Mayor of Welwyn Hatfield Borough, Councillor Mick Long (who is also a Hatfield Town Councillor) also came along to join in the fun.

One participant admitted: “I didn’t really want to play games I didn’t know at first, but the games are really good fun. I like hopscotch the best and skipping too.”

Representatives from the Replay Play Partnership, part of the Welwyn Hatfield Alliance, brought along free Play Day t-shirts, stickers and Frisbees provided by the National Children’s Bureau who promote the day.

The overall theme of National Play Day this year is ‘Our streets too!’ Recent research has shown a worrying decline in the number of children playing outside, due to a combination of factors such as increased traffic, fear of crime and bullying and a lack of suitable areas. In response to this, the Replay Play Partnership is launching a Play Strategy in early September which is a result of a number of months of consultative research with children, young people, parents/carers, local authority planners and organisations who have an interest in play and activities outside the home. The proposed strategy will be designed to encourage more children to play outdoors, as well as reassure parents about their child’s safety while playing outside.

In addition, in September the Partnership will also be bidding for lottery funding to launch some new play initiatives in the borough.

For more details, go to the Alliance's Press Release page.