Successful, sustainable outdoor play spaces for young children are rarely the result of happy accident. In 20 years of visiting schools and settings in the UK and abroad, I have found that the most effective spaces exhibit a combination of high-quality (and generously provided) resources, knowledgeable and committed outdoor practitioners, and thoughtfully designed landscapes that provide children with opportunities to manipulate and affect their environment.
Big budgets are rarely as influential as a setting's careful, considerate and consistent commitment to outdoor play. Despite this, UK outdoor spaces for young children are still dominated by spaceand budget-grabbing fixed-play equipment.
This series will explore a different methodology for the design, resourcing and management of early years outdoor spaces: the 7Cs approach, devised by Canadian academics Susan Herrington and Chandra Lesmeister.
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