The Power of Play in the Hutt

The Power of Play in the Hutt

02/05/2022
6 min read

Play in the Hutt is a movement kick-starting action to get our community PLAYING again. A partnership between Hutt City Council, Sport NZ and Healthy Families Hutt Valley with the aim to create strong foundations ensuring tamariki are able to be physically active throughout their life-stages, starting with play at a young age. 

Play is important because it allows tamariki to experience fun, joy and laughter in a way that is important to them. It is also how they keep active and develop physically, socially, emotionally and cognitively. As a society we’ve engineered physical activity out of our daily lives and something has to change. Our children need the time, space and permission to have quality play experiences. 

In 2018, key partners decided it was time to take action for our neighbourhoods and kick started Play in the Hutt. The Play in the Hutt movement recognises that quality play experiences for our tamariki will enhance their development and enrich the lives of Lower Hutt residents. 

Beginning with understanding the state of play, we chose three different neighbourhoods to be involved in the research with a spread of socioeconomic, urban, suburban and sparsely populated realities with high levels of young people. It was important to start with a strong local focus, with the aim of scaling the delivery and impact city wide.

Play in the Hutt delivered street parties in each of the three neighbourhoods and asked parents and children about their experience of play, as well as ongoing conversations and interactions with parents and children at play days, play streets and schools. We learnt about the challenges and barriers to play and explored solutions for future action. “Have a way to slow down the traffic in order for the environment to be safer for children to play.” – local parent.

Similar to international and New Zealand trends, Lower Hutt children seem to be getting fewer opportunities to play and are playing less outside due to a combination of limited time, permission and space to do so. Both parents and children indicated that it is easier to play outside if there are things to do, fun events and things to play with. We found there is a strong demand for local play interventions and a high willingness to engage in any local play programming. 

So, how do we practically enable our tamariki and rangatahi to play more in their daily activities?

We digested and processed the learnings from understanding play and explored opportunities for local activations. For play to become an everyday experience for our tamariki and rangatahi we needed to address the opportunities for quality play.   

One of the things we wanted to achieve was local play initiatives to help build a sense of community connectedness through neighbourhood events and street parties, making play an easier option for families and their children. “It would be great to connect with the neighbours so there’s a sense of everyone looking out for each other.” – Naenae Parent

Our Play in the Hutt initiatives include, Play Streets, Pukutākaro, Play Days, Sport + Play and Build & Play with CK & Co. 

Play Streets is an international movement where communities temporarily close usually quiet residential streets to create spaces that allow for neighbours to interact and play freely outside their doors“THIS!  Safe streets, knowing neighbours more, able to see,” was a parent response to the question about what play activations they wanted to see more of.

Pukutākaro is a programme designed to grow the amount of active play that our tamariki enjoy outside of classroom hours. A wide selection of play gear is placed on school grounds at lunch break and afterschool.  This provides students with access to play which is spontaneous, freely chosen, self- directed, fun, challenging, social repeatable and for no specific purpose. “I just want to cry I have never seen the whole school out like this.  Look at them helping each other and supporting the children from xx school.” – Teacher

Play Days are days of fun scattered around community spaces that celebrate local, unstructured play with bubbles, water play, craft play, sports, active play and more. These sessions are a great way to introduce residents to new or seldom used spaces and encourage local daily play.  “Such a fun time! I didn’t know this was here. Thank you!” – Taitā parent  

Sport + Play is a trailer of sports gear and play equipment. The trailer encourages, physical activity and playfulness to get tamariki moving. It is used by schools, scouts, churches, early childhood education providers, council groups and health providers.  Users have appreciated the ease of access to a wide variety of play items suitable for many different locations.  

Build & Play with CK & Co is a trailer full of tools including saws, hammers, hand drills and materials such as timber, PVC pipes, and recycled items for children to create, build and play. The trailer allows for engaging, construction play that offers tamariki opportunities for self-directed risky and creative play. Educators and school staff have said, “Behaviour was fantastic, every child was highly engaged.  Great way to see all of the key competencies all in one place.  Authentic!” “One group built a 4-level display case – the shelves were level and it was freestanding.  Great teamwork, problem solving, very proud of themselves.  The shelves are in use in the classroom.”

We are continuously exploring how we can enable children to play more, every day. What we have learnt so far is outlined in our local research report Tākaro to Play.

For play to become an everyday experience for our tamariki and rangatahi we need to address the opportunities for quality play, including increasing access, awareness and social permission for play spaces close to our homes and in our neighbourhood reserves and open spaces.

The future of play is one where our neighbourhoods and communities support and enable tamariki, rangatahi and whānau to get out and play. Achieving this requires a collective mindset shift, where play is front of mind and at the top of the agenda. 

More convenient active transport infrastructure, combined with proximity of things to do and access to green spaces, will entice our young people to play on the way to and from school, work and local destinations and activities. 

We all have a role in enabling play. Play in the Hutt forms a foundation of work that advocates the importance of play and aims to increase accessibility and opportunities for Lower Hutt’s children, young people and families to play. For more information visit https://www.activeinthehutt.org.nz/play

Thanks a lot to Sam Dickie and Lucy Kingsbeer from Play in the Hutt who wrote this article for us.