Picking up prize money is ‘childs' play’

Winners of the Highland Council’s Play Improvement Group annual Highland Play Award were in Inverness today (Wed 23 August 2017) to receive £1000 towards their children’s play project.

Badenoch and Strathspey-based “Roots and Shoots” were at the Council’s People Committee to receive their prize money from Cllr Alasdair Christie, Chair of the People Committee and Sandra Harrington, Chair of the Play Improvement Group.

Cllr Christie said: “Congratulations to Roots and Shoots I hope this prize money will be put to good use to expand the great work that they do for children in their community.” 

The Highland Council, in association with Play Highland, offer this annual award to the group, organisation or community that has done the most to promote play in the region. The award is presented by the Play Improvement Group which works to promote self-directed free play with daily access to the outdoors.

Sandra Harrington added: “We received a large number of entries to our annual competition - the standard of which was very high. The Play Improvement Group enjoyed reading all of the excellent examples of play opportunities being provided in Highland.”

Roots and Shoots Highland is a not-for-profit social enterprise launched in May 2016 with the aim of increasing outdoor play opportunities for all in Badenoch and Strathspey and the Cairngorms. Their plans for 2017 include supporting families in Badenoch and Strathspey to play outdoors with their nursery aged children. Their focus is on providing opportunities for child-led adventurous play in a natural environment using a ‘forest school’ approach. They provide resources to support children’s play, generally with a box of den making supplies that can encourage tree climbing, natural crafts, bug hunting, den building, fire lighting and cooking around a campfire.