09.03.2023
Could Active Play be the route to better health?
Being physically active is one of the most important things people can do to improve their physical and mental health. It can help prevent a range of non-communicable diseases, those associated with unhealthy behaviour such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes, and improves mental health and cognitive functioning, among other benefits. However, the new Step Up!
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06.10.2022
Empowering women and girls through Active Play
To mark this year’s Scottish Women and Girls Sports week we want to highlight the positive impact of women and girls’ participation in sports and physical activity through the Active Play Programme. Using a partnership approach it is enabling children, and adults, to participate in, and in turn lead on Active Play across Glasgow and
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15.10.2021
Thrive Outdoors Blog Series: ‘Our wee garden’
Blog 2 Read on as we share Blog 2 in our blog series on bringing Outdoor ELC to the Botanics in Edinburgh. This week’s blog contributor is Cath Ashby part of the learning team at the Royal Botanic Gardens Edinburgh. Hi I am Cath Ashby and I have worked at the Botanics for 23
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22.05.2020
Nurturing the ‘new normal’ through outdoor learning and play
As we move out of lockdown, embracing our outside spaces can help society recover and build resilience for the future, writes Thrive Outdoors Programme Manager Rachel Cowper. The online algorithms must be getting to know my reading habits of late, because I have come across many articles over the last few days discussing what the
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29.11.2019
Playing outside helps children to have a stake in their communities
By Jill Fraser, Community Play Performance Advisor Community is an old and deeply human idea. It is about sharing; people sharing experiences, sharing places and sharing hopes. We gain a sense of community early in our lives. For children, playing is intrinsically linked to a burgeoning sense of belonging to a bigger group of people
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22.10.2019
We need our children to be better than us – outdoor play can help
There is a saying, variously attributed to early environmental campaigners but likely a much older proverb from a wiser time and place, that goes: “We do not inherit the earth from our parents, we borrow it from our children.” Whatever its origins, the sentiment rings true and by its maxim we have failed our children
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26.09.2019
Working together for wellbeing
I firmly believe that the wellbeing of people is paramount. It directs the work we do at Inspiring Scotland, as well as the work I do personally as a member of several community and advisory groups. It directs the work I do as a sports coach for children and young people. That’s why I was
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14.05.2018
Go2play is now Thrive Outdoors
At Inspiring Scotland, we want all of Scotland’s children to thrive. We have been working in outdoor play since 2010 and we know that by playing outdoors, children grow, learn and develop, emotionally and physically, in the best possible way. In short, growing playing and learning outdoors is how children thrive. That’s why, after eight
Read More11.12.2017
There is so much to play for when we encourage young children to enjoy the outdoors
By Juliet Robertson, Outdoor learning and play specialist, Creative STAR Learning The image of children splashing in muddy puddles or running, carefree through the woods, giggling in the way only happy children can, might seem like a nostalgic rural idyll to city dwellers in this age of social media and easy-access tech. But it doesn’t have
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11.09.2017
Away and Play: Fun, free and vital for development
We have lost something by scheduling ‘fun’ as part of our busy lives. Who remembers hopscotch? Climbing into a cardboard box? A stick that to you was a magic wand or a Light Sabre? Who remembers just running through the woods or over the grass for no real reason at all? I am sure most
Read More19.04.2017
Make outdoor play the norm for our children
Rachel Cowper from our go2play fund urges us all to let children play outside in The Herald. With a sunny start to April and the longer days ahead, you might begin to see the streets and green spaces of Scotland filled with children and wonder: is it not always so? Sadly, like the rose-tinted memories
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