Nursery World - Outdoors: Key 11 – guidance on supporting challenging play

Children need to push their boundaries in all directions, so finding the balance between safety and challenge is central to this strand of the outdoors, says Professor Jan White

Settings take a confident and level-headed approach to risk if they adopt an approach which factors in the benefits of risky play.

KEY 11: SAFETY VS CHALLENGE

This area of practice outdoors requires that:

WHY IS THIS ISSUE KEY TO UNLOCKING THE OUTDOORS?

The safety and wellbeing of children is clearly paramount. However, children need challenge and its associated risk if they are to develop well and advance as enthusiastic and competent lifelong learners. As we bounce back from a more risk-averse mentality, we will help ourselves enormously if we reframe risk assessment in play and education settings to ‘benefit-risk management’. Rather than just assessing for risk, we should fully consider the developmental benefits associated with any activity as well.

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