The Play Trail
Our tamariki have been the voices for the Play Trail and we have been delighted to have the support from the Play Experts from Russell Primary School with full support from the Principal. They have attended several meetings to brainstorm their moemoea (dreams) and came up with plenty of ideas of what they would like to see.
After a couple of meetings, they narrowed down their priorities to the following:
Top ideas
- First Priority: “Play Whare” The children’s top priority is a “play whare”. They suggested placing it in a grassy area like Haratu to ensure plenty of open space for running and play.
- Second Priority: Dancing Footsteps The next item on their wish list is dancing footsteps. They would love to paint these in the new town square on Cass Street but these will need to go on the Southern Strand which is now pedestrianised.
- Games like Chess & Snakes and Ladders: The children suggested painting chess boards and games outside the town hall, near Hone’s Garden.
- Treasure Box and Hunt: They proposed placing a treasure box filled with games along the road and a treasure hunt, with riddles painted on rocks to guide players.
- Tree Swing: A tree swing was also mentioned as a fun feature they’d like to see installed on the Strand.
Who is involved?
The Play Trail working group is drawn from students of Russell School, Kororareka Marae, parents representatives, members of the steering committee, community volunteers and local artists.
Anyone who would like get involved, just holler, we’d love to have you on board!
The children and parents on the working group would like to see the Play Trail in a specific location, so that it is easy for parents to know where their children are playing. The draft map is given below.
Progress on the Playtrail is underway, but sadly the swings that were installed by a community member before Christmas were vandalised, leaving the children with just ropes and no swings. If you know who did this, let us know.
