Earlier this week I was engaged in one of my normal evening activities, running a junior youth club in a Devon market town. While it’s categorically not a playwork setting and has an emphasis on informal education, when you get a bunch of 11-13 year olds together on a hot summer evening you know there’s going to be some play involved!

Den building was on the schedule for the evening (really solid learning outcomes – details on request), and since there were a couple of carpet showrooms locally I scrounged about 20 huge cardboard rolls, the kind they wrap carpets around. They were each about 5m long by about 20cm in diameter and I carried them on my shoulder back to the youth centre – paying due respect to Health and Safety of course!!

As it’s getting close to the end of the term and many of the young people…