Playing out in Hartcliffe: A child-led creative research project
Do Hareclive children play out? If not, why not? Do children want to play out? These are some of the questions that came out of our 2015 Bristol Green Capital project: Adventures of Curiosity and Wonder on Dundry Slopes.
As Playing Out CIC also wanted to commission some child-led research into these questions in Hartcliffe, Room 13 stepped up and the Management Team quickly understood the issues and the task. Reflection, problem solving and asking big questions are part of the everyday culture of our artists’ studio, so we knew we had the perfect set up for a child-led research lab. Through meetings and discussions around the table, we shared ideas and made a plan.
Creative action research led by and for children
We transformed the studio into ‘Play Station 13’ – a space full of creative research activities and prompts– and promoted it to all children in the school. Over a whole week, children of all ages from 5 to 11 came and gave their views through: drawing, voting, interviews, exploring their patch through Google Earth, discussion and using plasticine to create a landscape of streets without cars where they want to play.
A huge wealth of responses and data were collected. You can explore it all in our research report ‘Playing Out in Hartcliffe’. The top line conclusions? Some children in Hartcliffe never play outside. Many do, in some form. Nearly all children want to play out more. The main barriers are speeding traffic/ dangerous driving and – a key response from children – adult fears around cars and other adults. Watch this chat with Madi, 11, captured in our research, as she expresses her views.
Ideas and solutions
The Management Team was so motivated by this project that they carried out more research at home and in the park. They also had lots of ideas for making roads safer and getting adults to understand. For example, when you press a traffic light button, it could play the sound of children playing so that cars can hear it. When we build roads, we should build more space alongside them for children to use. And what about a protest led by children, or a You Tube film? All of this fuelled our next collaboration with Playing Out on Safer Streets and our later work on child friendly cities.
“If I could play out I would… meet up with my friends”…“go to my relatives’ houses”…“play football”…“go on bikes and scooters”….“explore!” …“go to the park”… “have adventures”… “feel happy, joyful and amazing”… “do anything, everything, go anywhere!”… “do all the things YOU used to do when you were young”
“If my street had no cars I would… go out more”… “play all around”… “be happy” …”feel really calm”… “dance in the road all day” …”have more space and take all my toys out.”
