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Childminding: Enabling exciting and challenging play
This badge demonstrates a childminder's ability to facilitate exciting and challenging play spaces for children in their care.
Access to freely chosen play is essential in the development of children and young people. When we enable children to make their own choices in play they learn problem solving, develop resilience and increase their self-esteem and confidence. Your role should be to facilitate the play experience, make it happen, observe it and know when to intervene to either support the play or to help manage risk.
To earn this badge you will need to:
- provide a description of no more than 100 words, or a photograph, of the play space you have created along with a short account of the types of play you think will occur in the space
- write a short reflective note after the play space has been used by the children about how they played in the space and include a description of your role in the play.
There are no prerequisites for this badge. However, you may find it useful to read the following:
- Best Play (especially chapters 2,3,4 and 7)
- Health and Safety Executive advice on risk and challenge
- Examples of challenging play
When observing the play, use descriptive words which explain how you know the children were excited and challenged by the opportunity.
Instead of saying “the children enjoyed their experience”, talk about how you know they enjoyed it eg were they smiling and laughing, were they talking about it during and after the experience? What was your role in the play? Did you intervene and if so why? Equally if you didn’t intervene, explain why you felt it was not necessary to do so.
Remember, the evidence you provide will be viewable by anyone you show your badge to. Please don’t include confidential or private information within your evidence.
Submit your application
The SSSC Open Badge system relies on trust. We trust that the evidence you provide will be of your own work and based on your own skills and knowledge.
By submitting an application you agree to the following statement:
“In studying and completing the activities for this badge, I confirm that all the work provided as evidence will be my own.”
The SSSC will revoke a badge if the evidence provided is discovered to have been the work of someone else.
Your evidence, name, and email address will be sent to the organisation who issue this badge