In 2016, Aga and I took part of in the building of the nursery classrooms as part of OGS. We noticed that the children started to play with the way the space had changed and we made some trial tunnels and hills which they loved.  Since then we have worked with children and adults in a series of creative workshops over 3 weeks in April 2017. We also worked with the villagers to create further prototypes for the tunnels and hills. Children explored the existing spaces as well as being introduced to new forms of play. At the end of the 3rd week we created a proposal based on the children’s ideas and we held an exhibition to share the ideas with the whole village. 

St James Place Foundation has generously donated £2500 to OGS to build the ideas generated with the villagers. We are looking for further funding to make sure we can include as many ideas as possible. The villagers will be central to the next stage of turning ideas into reality; designing and building the play space for the children. Aga and I will be visiting the village in December and working with villagers to make the visions come alive. 

An important aspect of the project is the use of locally sourced and sustainable materials – like palm leaves, bamboo, earth blocks and soil.  We don’t want to build a ‘western’ type of playground, rather we are proposing something sustainable, cheaper and easy to maintain, which protects  local environment.

We plan to reuse existing structures and  recycle unwanted materials – like car tyres. Lots of those materials are abandoned and unused in the fields around the village. This will allow us not only to reduce the costs of the construction, but will also bring positive change by cleaning local area and introducing recycling ideas in the village.

Through play young children learn valuable skills for a rapidly changing world - skills such as problem solving, empathy through role-playing and collaboration. We want to make a safe space for nursery children to play, so that they can extend their skills. Ideas which have been developed with the village include:

• Role-play areas such as a hut and a boat which reflect the location of the village which is near to swamps and marshes, which open to the sea. Children were very excited when we showed them photos of boats to play in and started offering very creative ideas for play.
• Hills, tunnels and ramps will offer children to move in different ways and extend their imaginations. They will be able to make dens and play spaces within this area as well with items from the Mobile Play and Storage
• A mobile play set made from woven palm. This will be  be used by teachers and  can be moved around the playground. This is based on the trials where children were seen to use a woven palm tunnel, baskets and fabric with great imagination and the teachers saw many opportunities for how these materials can be used to link learning inside and outside.
• Speaking tubes to encourage children to communicate in new and different ways.
• Swings  designed to encourage children to use them collaboratively.
• Large blackboards and quiet comfy spaces for reading and writing - we observed children outside of the classrooms wanting to read and write, so we want to create spaces which will support and encourage this. Spaces may be contoured by moving sand or creating small seating areas. 

OGS’ purpose is to promote and sustain the practice of global educational exchange between developed and developing countries. We do this through supporting educational establishments to deliver high-quality international learning exchanges that fulfill goals in formal and informal learning. We aim to benefit young people, teachers, and education institutions in developed and developing country settings.