Risky play drives centre's success

Paradise Park prides itself on offering a playful twist to the children’s centre concept. Nothing illustrates this as much as its mini-adventure playground. Designed by play workers from Islington Play Association, the charity that runs the centre, there are walkways in trees, sand, water and a fire pit.

“The design comes from the thinking around adventure play, letting children try things out and do things that are a little bit challenging,” says Alison Grant, director of the association.

“At the start, our childcare workers had a lot of concerns and felt it was not safe. For example, we have wooden slats on the walkways and they were worried the children would get splinters. We said: ‘If it doesn’t work, we can change it.’ There’s never been one splinter because children learned how not to get splinters, which is the point.”

The focus on daring play extends throughout the centre. “There is a strong free-play approach to our nursery care,” says Grant. “We ensure there is an enormous amount of choice and freedom for children to direct their own play. Our workers are supported by the play association, so they have the confidence to let things develop more fluidly than usual in children’s centres.”

It is an approach that is reaping rewards. Ofsted gave the “vibrant and welcoming” centre a good rating at its last inspection, noting that the gap between the lowest achieving 20 per cent of children and their peers had narrowed.

It is also the first under-fives setting to get a Quality in Play accreditation. Even Play England was not sure that an early years service could live up to the accreditation mark’s free-play ideals. “When we applied, the Quality in Play panel said: ‘We don’t really do under-fives’,” recalls Grant. “They didn’t think early years settings could be run like that and we proved them wron