Our News Category Single: London Play Press Releases

Here’s a riddle for you in the time of Covid: this week 45 children from across London made go karts from scratch and traced them against one another. All Covid-safe! But how?

London Play press release

Inviting groups of children from across London to converge in a field, rub shoulders designing and building go karts from scratch, and then race them side by side was a BIG no-no this year. But London Play’s annual Go Kart and Girl Kart events are so hotly anticipated, by so many children, that the charity had to find a way to make them happen.

And so it was that Together A-Kart was born! Working over three consecutive days, with three ‘bubbles’ of children at three adventure playgrounds; six karts were designed, built, decorated and individually put through their paces. No petrol required – but plenty of hand sanitiser was deployed in the name of clean, safe fun. The London Play team timed and recorded all six teams in action; and then expertly spliced it together to create an exciting film, premiered on the charity’s YouTube channel on Friday at 12 noon.

Until then, none of the teams will know how they performed – but winning team the Abbey Aliens will no doubt be marking the end of the holidays with plenty of excitement! They can look forward to claiming their prize: a day out at Kent’s Buckmore Park Kart Circuit where Formula One stars Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button started out, generously offered by the Henry Surtees Foundation.

Many of the children taking part started out not knowing one end of a screwdriver from the other, but with a bit of guidance from London Play’s chief engineer Peter Wright, and some hands-on practice making their ideas into reality, all six teams were elated to have created functioning and even beautiful karts by the end of each day.

Angel from the winning team said:

“I’ve enjoyed painting aliens and making them look really nice. I helped cut the wood. It felt good… it was hard. But I got there in the end!”

Second placed team was ‘Boom Crushers’, hailing from Hackney’s Pearson Street Adventure Playground; and only just pipping their sister team by half a second (!) for third was Waterloo’s ‘Wolf Pack’.

Wolf Pack team member Anton, 10 said: “The best thing about our kart was we took our time and did the best things, and all worked as a team together.”

London Play’s Catherine Togut said: “We are so pleased to have found a way to make our go kart events happen this year. Together Akart has actually worked surprisingly well and the children have been fantastic. We are also really grateful for the support of the Henry Surtees Foundation, which had faith in London Play to deliver in these very unique circumstances.”

London Play also thanks Manufacturing Technology Association in remaining committed to supporting this event in its adapted form.

Thousands of families visiting adventure playground foodbanks across the capital this week will be picking up parcels of joy along with their food staples thanks to the capital’s leading play charity.

LONDON PLAY PRESS RELEASE

London Play has devised the emergency Play Parcels to alleviate the suffering of children who have been denied the simple opportunity of playing with their friends for three long months. On Sunday the team dragged in family members to help with a day of furious packing ahead of deliveries to the four corners of the city.

Although the explosion in food poverty is a widely-recognised consequence of the coronavirus pandemic; play deprivation is the less visible tragedy for the capital’s 1.8m children. It is a mental health crisis in the making, says London Play director Paul Hocker:

“Play is not frivolous. It is how children understand the world and it is essential for their health and wellbeing. At times like this, they need to play more than ever.”

Many children are not yet back in school; playgrounds have been closed for over three months and social distancing is still in place. For the 37 per cent of London’s children already living in poverty prior to the lockdown, or the 22 per cent living in overcrowded homes, the deprivation is even more acute.

The parcels include a unique deck of 52 playing cards produced by the team at London Play, each describing a game or activity to be played at home or even over the phone with relatives or friends. Small and simple props to support the games they describe, such as chalk, balloons, drawing materials and minifigures, are included in the box.

The 2,000 parcels will be distributed this week to families most in need via adventure playgrounds and food banks. Most of the capital’s 80 unique adventure playgrounds are located in lower income neighbourhoods where children are most likely to be suffering the worst impacts of the pandemic. These safe, staffed community hubs have been forced to close their gates for play, but many have risen to the challenge presented by the pandemic and are distributing food and more for people in need.

Kate Ferguson from Hayward Adventure Playground in Islington said that the play parcels will be delivered with weekly food deliveries to families who had been unable to attend the playground during lockdown. She said:

“Thank you so much to London Play for these incredible play parcels for families that usually attend KIDS Hayward Adventure Playground!

I know many of the children are excited to receive them already. As an adventure playground for children with special educational needs and disabilities, we have been working with much smaller groups of vulnerable children than usual throughout lockdown due to government restrictions. Therefore there are so many children who would have regularly attended the playground, who have been at home throughout lockdown, without play resources and their usual regular opportunity to play freely outdoors.”

In Lambeth, Candice James at Max Roach Adventure Playground said:

“We are pleased to be partnering with London Play this summer. The partnership will extend the Summer of Play project at Max Roach to enable play parcels to reach 100 vulnerable children unable to access our reduced play service due to Covid-19 group restrictions.”

Kelvin Ha at Redbridge’s ELHAP, the award-winning special needs playground said:

“Lockdown for all children and young people has been incredibly challenging in terms of being able to access free and adventurous play.  The effect of lockdown for children and young people with disabilities, who already experienced restricted access to play is even greater. The Play Parcels generously provided by London Play will mean that many of the families that ELHAP supports with children and young people with complex needs will still be able to play adventurously despite our playground being shut.”