2012 Australian Kidsafe Awards, Childrens Services category.

TESS MICHAELS of TRPLD, super wicked ninja playspace designer and JAMIE MILLER of JM Landscapes, way cool awesome FIEB building legend, wish to congratulate Innaburra Anglican College Preschool, Bangor, New South Wale, winners of a Highly Commended Award in the 2012 Australian Kidsafe Awards, Childrens Services category.


Pictures of the completed  design/build can be seen below.  A link to the other Kidsafe winners in this category can be found HERE.

Inaburra Preschool Bangor, Sydney, New South Wales.

Inaburra Preschool

Bangor, Sydney, New South Wales

 Construction: J M Landscapes

The design brief for this project was to,

* Create a safer more natural environment that would provide clear supervisory sight lines,

* Incorporate "dead" space that had previously been used for retaining or had been nominated by child care
   regulatory bodies as unusable,

* Restructure the playground levels to provide a clear direct pathway from top to bottom, reducing trip 

   hazards and providing a gently ascent/descent for parents with prams,

* Repurposing the lower slopes to incorporate play and small group areas.     

Preschool playspace, After, 2012. 

Preschool playspace, After, 2012. 







Preschool playspace, Before, 2011. Top and middle tiers. The middle tier of the playground had stairs whose treads and risers were of equal size. This made it  difficult for children of this age group to  ascend/ descend safely. Additionally, the step treads were too small to be used for seating. It was requested that the new design should break up the open space in the tier to provide a series of smaller more intimate spaces.

Preschool playspace, After, 2012. 

Preschool playspace, Before, 2011.  Middle and lower tiers. Educators advised that the fixed cargo/scramble net was rarely use by children and that the series of stepped concrete levels was providing a mobility difficulty for parents with prams and a trip hazard for the children.

Preschool playspace, After, 2012. Middle and lower tiers. In the fore ground is a small segment of the gently graduated Stoneset pathway that now links all levels. In the rear is a series of child dimensioned stairs that can be used for small group work or as ad-hoc seating for performances.

Preschool playspace, Before, 2011. Top and middle tiers. Educators reported that the children had grown bored with the fixed slide and were rolling down the adjacent slope instead.

Preschool playspace, After, 2012. Middle tier.

Preschool playspace, Before, 2011. Top and middle tiers. The sandpit had been built on a slope which caused the sand to flow downwards out of the pit and onto other areas of the play ground. A concrete wall had been build around the outer lower rim of the pit to prevent this. Educators advised that the wall was non-functional and unsightly .

Preschool playspace, After, 2012. Top and middle tiers. The new sand pit is stepped and incorporates equipment boxes that double as seating, raised building platforms and a water channel that bisects the pit, doubles as a tier wall and empties into a dry creek bed watering the sensory plantings.

Preschool playspace, After, 2012. Top and middle tiers. Instead of emerging from a pump the water bubbles up from a sandstone cauldron before emptying into the rill. The water flow is controlled by an educator accessing a nearby tap which is fitted with a vandal proof keyed valve.

Preschool playspace, After, 2012. Top and middle tiers. The sandstone cauldron emptying into the rill.

Preschool playspace, After, 2012. Top and middle tiers. The sandstone rill acts as a terrace within the sand pit, a building platform and a source of water for the children and the vegetation within the creek bed.

Preschool playspace, After, 2012. Top and middle tiers. The sandstone rill.

Preschool playspace, Before, 2011. Middle tier. Prior to redevelopment the area beneath the sandpit was compacted grass, used by the children as an informal pathway to the sandpit. 

Preschool playspace, After,  2012. Middle tier. After  redevelopment the area incorporates a formal stepping stone pathway, a dry creek bed, a mini labyrinth/seating area and sensory plantings.

Preschool playspace, After,  2012. Middle tier. After  redevelopment the area incorporates a formal stepping stone pathway, a dry creek bed, a mini labyrinth/seating area and sensory plantings.

Preschool playspace, After,  2012. Upper tier. A large bamboo teepee seat is ringed with sensory plantings and fragrant climbers which will grow upward and between the poles creating a shaded intimated small group area/storytelling space.

Preschool playspace, Before, 2011. Lower tier.
Educators advised that they wished the area to be redesigned to create a safer, more natural environment that would provide clear supervisory sight lines, utilise "dead" space that had previously been used for retaining or had been nominated by child care regulatory bodies as unusable, and to re-purpose the lower slopes to incorporate play and small group areas.

Preschool playspace, Before, 2011. Lower tier.
Educators advised that they wished the area to be redesigned to create a safer, more natural environment that would provide clear supervisory sight lines, utilise "dead" space that had previously been used for retaining or had been nominated by child care regulatory bodies as unusable, and to re-purpose the lower slopes to incorporate play and small group areas.

Preschool playspace, After,  2012. A new mixed surface bike track.

Preschool playspace, Before, 2011. Lower tier.
"Dead" space that had previously been nominated by child care regulatory bodies as unusable.

Preschool playspace, After,  2012. Lower tier. Prior "dead" space has been re-purposed to incorporate play and small group areas.

Preschool playspace, Before, 2011. Lower tier.
"Dead" space that had previously been used for retaining .

Preschool playspace, After, 2012. Middle and lower tiers. The slope between the middle and lower tiers is now has two separate climbing areas, (ropes and a climbing wall)  a double slide and a tunnel slide.

Preschool playspace, After, 2012. Middle and lower tiers. The slope between the middle and lower tiers is now has two separate climbing areas, (ropes and a climbing wall)  a double slide and a tunnel slide. 

Preschool playspace, After, 2012. Upper and middle tiers. A series of child dimensioned stairs that can be used for small group work or as ad-hoc seating for performances, a climbing wall and an  ascending log stepper causeway.

Preschool playspace, After, 2012.  Upper and middle tiers. A series of child dimensioned stairs that can be used for small group work or as ad-hoc seating for performances, a climbing wall and an  ascending log stepper causeway with sensory plantings.

Log in, tune out: is technology driving us crazy?

Log in, tune out: is technology driving us crazy?

Something that sent shivers down my spine since I saw the U-Tube video of the toddler poking a magazine with her finger thinking it was a tablet computer. The article is a bit like the debate on climate change. Every group is given the opportunity to state their case (so as to be fair) until all you have is a cacophony of noise that drowns out anything useful and distracts any firm decision in respect to action.

Make your own choice.

Full article can be read from the link above.


THERE IS no down time for the digital native. Meals are photographed and shared online before the first bite is taken. A lull in conversation or a pause at the traffic lights are opportunities to check texts and emails. At home, with one eye on the TV, the other scanning Facebook, Twitter and Google, life in the clickstream is frenetic.

But some experts are starting to worry that the digital revolution transforming the way we live is also making us ill. For the ''always on'' generation, this constant overload of information could be triggering mental health problems. More worrying, they say, is emerging evidence that it may be causing structural changes in the brain.

''I see kids clinically who spend the whole day engaged with electronic media and it's clearly a problem,'' said Professor George Patton from the Royal Children's Hospital's Centre for Adolescent Health. ''During those teenage years when the brain is in a very active phase of development and learning to process information about relationships and emotions, there's a concern that these kids are actually going to be wired differently in the future, given the malleability of brains at that age.

''They may grow accustomed to, and be more comfortable with, the kinds of relationships that happen in this electronic space.''

With the march of technology outpacing research into its impact, medical opinion is divided on whether it will irreparably rewire our brains to crave instant gratification and screen-based stimulation.

However, some specialists say there is already clinical evidence that behaviours such as online multitasking or addiction to Facebook ''likes'' bear the hallmarks of medical conditions such as hyperactivity and obsessive compulsive disorder.

Larry Rosen, a Californian psychologist and one of the world's leading authorities on technology overuse, believes future generations will increasingly suffer from ''iDisorders'' - psychiatric conditions such as narcissistic personality disorder, mania and attention deficit disorder, sparked by excessive use of social media, smartphones and computers.

He says the consequences of living life through a screen are already being seen in heavy users, who have diminished attention spans, impaired learning and difficulty forming relationships in the real world.

''Technology by its engaging nature is creating multiple problems. It encourages rapid, continuous task-switching, which means that we are only processing information at a shallow level and not deeply so we're not able to have complex thoughts but only superficial ones,'' Rosen told The Sunday Age.

''We're also finding certain technologies such as video gaming produce dopamine in the brain at high levels, which our brain interprets as pleasure and that makes us want to do it more. Smartphones are also causing people enough anxiety that they are checking them every 15 minutes or even more, often to help reduce the anxiety of missing out on important information.''

..... Last week, The Sunday Age revealed increasing rates of addiction to online video games could lead to ''internet use disorder'' being classified as a mental illness in the redrafted psychiatric bible, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

This cacophony of electronic noise has prompted calls for schools to start teaching students how to switch off. Melbourne-based non-profit group Smiling Mind has created a mindfulness meditation program - delivered, somewhat ironically, via a website and app - which is being piloted in 20 schools across Australia, with the aim of being embedded in the national curriculum by 2020.

......Oxford University neuroscientist Susan Greenfield has been the most vocal in raising the alarm on the shift from face-to-face contact to screen-based communication - a trend she says poses a bigger threat to humanity than climate change. She argues that non-verbal cues such as body language and eye contact, which may be responsible for up to 70 per cent of our understanding of human messages, are not available to social media users, and therefore innate traits such as empathy are being diminished.

However, Greenfield's claims, which include linking internet use to increasing rates of autism, have been criticised by many of her peers for being alarmist and not based on robust research.

''Too much of anything is not good for you. So there are certain young people who will be at risk of internet addiction just as there are certain young people who are at risk of alcohol addiction. We can't take small case studies and generalise it to the whole of the population,'' said Jane Burns, chief executive of the Young and Well Co-operative Research Centre, a Melbourne-based, federal government-funded body set up to explore the role of technologies in improving the mental health and wellbeing of 12 to 25-year-olds.

A study of 2000 young people, conducted by the centre and published in the Medical Journal of Australia in 2010, showed one-third spent one to three hours a day online and on social media, and 50 per cent spent less than an hour on their devices.

Burns says the findings busted the myth that most young people were overexposed to electronic media. A blanket claim that technology is bad, she said, does not take into account its benefits, particularly for marginalised groups such as those with a disability or chronic illness, and gay and lesbian youngsters.

''Technologies allow you to be connected, and being connected is very important for mental health and wellbeing. It allows you to share positive stories of change, reduce stigma and embrace diversity,'' she said.

''There is research which shows that those who are engaged in both online and offline communication are more involved in activities, more involved in what's happening on a global scale, more interested in what's happening to the environment, to politics and are actually more active and participating in more meaningful ways.

''The internet is here to stay so we've got to harness its potential, and like all things big it has the potential to do both good and bad. If we can get the good right then the bad becomes significant for a few but insignificant for most.''

Dan Lubman, an expert on addiction and the developing brain, and director of Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre, says that while he believes there is presently insufficient evidence to suggest adolescent brain development is being adversely affected by online behaviour, he wants government investment in research to address this vast knowledge gap.

''I don't think we have a good handle on when is this behaviour risky, or how do we let parents know in terms of when they should be worried? But by the same token we also don't know what are the real strengths or advantages of this way of communicating in terms of how does this build resilience and improve our kids' ability to socialise,'' Lubman said.

He agrees that lessons on how to manage information overload should be taught in schools, and argues that parents, who are increasingly using electronic devices to work outside office hours, do not always set the best example.

''There are lots of social pressures to respond instantaneously, whether you've got your on-leave email tracker on or not, so that work-life balance is a growing issue … We're embedded in a culture where this is normative and we just do things without stepping back and reflecting and asking is this actually good for us or the next generation?''

Free Range Kids » I Send My Kids Outside to Play…But They Don’t Know How

Free Range Kids » I Send My Kids Outside to Play…But They Don’t Know How

A really sad article from Free Range Kids, describing the results of the the gradual anti-socialisation and leeching of imaginary play that's occurred in our child-rearing and educational systems. My belief is that it is caused by a combination of fear of civil litigation, fear-mongering (for entertainment) through irresponsible journalism and "corporatisation" of childhood  


Full article can be read from the link above.

Hi Folks! Here’s a note that resonated with me so much. It’s why I tried to start that “I Won’t Supervise Your Kids“class with kids of all different ages, and why I want kids to meet up with each other and HAVE to figure out how to have fun on “Take Our Children to The Park…And Leave Them There Day.” Even as I write this my 14-year-old is trudging off to school knowing that at 3:30 he won’t find anyone to play with at the park just opposite the school because…the kids don’t do that. They go straight home and don’t come back out again. So my son does, too.

Breaks my heart. – L 

Dear Free-Range Kids: I try to send my 9 and 11 year old kids outside when at home but they don’t explore the neighborhood. They just play with each other around the house and often end up fighting and coming in. I find myself wondering if it would be cruel to lock the door to keep them out and I’d like to know what other parents do to push their kids to explore more. I feel like they are missing out on a childhood like I had where playmates were available when you called on them, or they were outside already. Now, it seems that nobody is outside these days!

I was happy when they ventured to the school playground three blocks away one day by themselves, but deflated when they came back “because there were big kids there.” I don’t know if the big kids were mean, or if my kids are just programmed to think that different ages shouldn’t mix (they are separated by grades at recess during school). I live in Perth, Ontario. Any suggestions appreciated. – Bummed Mom

Finding the cure for city anxieties

Finding the cure for city anxieties

A light but insightful article from Richard Glover of the SMH.

Full article can be read from the link above.   

.....American writer Richard Louv has been in Australia talking about his theory of ''nature-deficit disorder''. For most people in their 50s and 60s, memories of childhood are wrapped up with nature: visits to farms owned by friends or relatives; days spent poking around the creeks or fields that intersected the suburbs; a tree house assembled by an unsupervised crew of 10-year-olds in nearby bush, mostly using materials pinched from home.

In just one generation, Louv argues, this easy access to nature has largely disappeared. This matters in all sorts of ways. Louv cites the recent leap in the incidence of short-sightedness. According to a 2008 Australian study, 12-year-olds with the lowest levels of outdoor activity were two to three times more likely to develop myopia. The reason: their eyes have not been exercised by focusing on a distant horizon.

There's something unbelievably sad about a childhood without far horizons: not only the missing eye exercise, but the missing daydreaming and hike planning, the urge to both wander and wonder that comes with the sight of a distant horizon.

According to Louv, time in nature also reduces anxiety by giving us perspective on our problems. He admits he has trouble defining and explaining this effect, yet the experience is common among people who have had access to the bush.

Instead of this time in nature, many people - both young and old - now spend time with social media. Social media, of course, has many good points, especially the way it allows you to form communities outside the limitations of what's on offer in your own neighbourhood, office or school.

It strikes me, though, that social media also involves experiences that are exactly the opposite to those Louv finds in nature......If the bush makes you seem a small part of a big world, social media makes you feel like a big part of a small world. If nature dissolves ego, social media pumps it up. No wonder so many of us are anxious.......Facebook and Twitter create a sense that you're at the centre of a universe of your own creation - you're the planet around which everything swirls: your friends, your tastes, your hobbies. They don't call them iPads and iPhones for nothing......
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