Storyplay Festival 2024!

2025-04-02T23:42:14+00:00

Find out what we all got up to at the Storyplay Festival 2024 at the Children's Wood! Saturday 13th July Sunshine, Storyplay & a Family of Families! Our second ever Storyplay Festival was a huge success! Thank you to everyone who came. It was a beautiful day and didn’t rain until the festival ended – lucky us! In the morning, the Licketyspit team met at the Children’s Wood and quickly set-up for the festival. It took a lot of effort, but it was so worth it! Not long after we set up, we had the pleasure to welcome families from Bridgeton, Castlemilk, Cranhill, Maryhill & Govan as well as our families who join us for Licketyspit Online! We hosted over 125 people who all have one thing in common - they all love Storyplay! The families arrived and we created an enormous circle and got started! To warm-up, we did the biggest ‘Big As A Bear’ I’ve ever seen! But we weren’t warm enough because then we did a massive Dancing Warm-up! The energy was high and so before we split up, we sang ‘Ickerickeroo’. After some Storyplay as a huge group, we blew up our balloons and flew to our hub dens. We had families from 7 hubs, but for the festival we combined them into 5 – Bridgeton, Cranhill, Maryhill, Online & [...]

Storyplay Festival 2024!2025-04-02T23:42:14+00:00

International Play Association Conference

2025-04-02T23:45:56+00:00

Storyplay Champions rock the IPA Conference 8th June 2023 We were so proud of our 13 Storyplay Champion children & mums showing the world what children can do at the International Play Association Conference! Earlier this month they joined Taz, Andre, Ruby and myself and represented the whole Licketyspit Children & Families Network at the IPA conference. The power of play, human connection and creativity improves our lives and we really felt that reverberate around the 500 strong conference hall as we kicked the day off with some Storyplay. Mahek, Fiire, Simmi, Pemi, William, Fatima, Ibrahim, Sam, Shawn, Desire and Lexi led the whole conference in the Funky Chicken! They showed delegates how we like to dress up, and then invited them on an adventure in the Magic Ball! Imagine, 500 people on a Storyplay adventure together - led by the children! After that it was up to the Lantern Room for a more intimate Storyplay session where delegates joined in with Witches Fingers and Grandma Grandma as well as dressing up themselves and diving into the sea on another adventure, whoooooosh! The afternoon was spent picnicking, playing and interviewing delegates about how they like to play, their homes and their views on children's rights. Big thanks to all the delegates from far and near who engaged with the children and families on this very special [...]

International Play Association Conference2025-04-02T23:45:56+00:00

Licketyspit’s Annual Report 2022/23

2025-04-02T23:41:23+00:00

25th May 2023 Presenting Licketyspit's 2022/23 Annual Report! We had a fantastic year working on lots of brilliant projects with wonderful families and partners. This included innovative training & co-delivery with Scottish Women's Aid, establishing new Porridge & Play hubs in Bridgeton, Castlemilk & Cranhill and getting back to in person sessions in some of our other communities. Highlights included: New Scots Porridge & Play Hubs Women's Aid Storyplay Big Porridge & Play Glasgow Year 6 Our first Storyplay Festival  Lickety Mums This report also includes a summary of our 2021/22 activity, as we were so busy last year we didn't manage to publish a report! Many of our projects spanned both years, some of the distinct 2021/22 activities were: Family Art Voyage Storyplay for the Planet National Museum of Scotland Film Virginia, our Artistic Director, said: "Licketyspit has been very busy over the last few years and we are grateful to the funders who have allowed us to break new ground training Women's Aid Workers and establishing new Porridge & Play Hubs, staying connected with our online community and taking Storyplay as a children's rights approach to new heights and possibilities. "We hope you will enjoy this summary of Licketyspit’s adventures and discoveries in our 2022 Annual Report." Download our Annual Report

Licketyspit’s Annual Report 2022/232025-04-02T23:41:23+00:00

New film demonstrates the power of Porridge & Play

2025-04-02T23:42:57+00:00

Monday 27th March Thanks to the National Lottery Community Fund, Licketyspit’s Porridge & Play sessions will be back in 6 Glasgow communities and online for 2023/24. Now in its 7th year, Big Porridge & Play Glasgow will take place in Govan, Maryhill, Whiteinch and online, as well as in Bridgeton, Castlemilk & Cranhill. The east end and Castlemilk groups were started last year as part of the Scottish Government’s New Scots Integration Strategy, and the Lottery have stepped up to fund their continuation. Children and parents highlight the positive impact the sessions have on their confidence, mental health and wellbeing, relationships and sense of belonging, as well as children’s learning and development. “When I come here I feel like you can be you and feel free and you can laugh.” 6 year old, Porridge & Play Castlemilk Scroll down to watch the new film! “First week we came they were very shy but now very good. We all really enjoy this. I have met new friends, our language is better because of this” “Like nothing else we do. Great early drama/improvisation. Lots of imagination. Inclusive and child led!” “You won’t be alone here. I’ll be your friend” “Don’t know where we’d be without this. No-ones judging, there’s lots of acceptance, feel like we’re being brought into the community.” We [...]

New film demonstrates the power of Porridge & Play2025-04-02T23:42:57+00:00

An Out of This World Variety Show

2025-04-02T23:54:53+00:00

Welcome to the Porridge & Play Online blog where we share our stories and adventures! Saturday 11th March 2023 Fabulous Producer and her partner in show Top Hat Producer were in need of some fresh, innovative, entertaining and inspiring acts for their Variety Show. Everyone knows that what makes a Variety Show really, really good is to have various different acts that can entertain and make audiences happy and that can show to the world the hilarity and ingenuity of the different artists!. ‘But Our Variety Show is getting tired and old. We haven’t had new acts for quite some time now, partner.' 'We need new talent!’ ‘Well, have you heard of the Licketyspit Saturday Pals? I hear very good things! They seem to be a very creative and playful bunch…. Let’s put a call out for Variety Acts to them!’ The Licketyspit Saturday pals did not disappoint and attended the Call Out in droves! The most exquisite costumes were created for the occasion and some brilliant acts were waiting to burst out and amaze the Theatre Producers… ‘Welcome y’all! It is fabulous to be here and hopefully it will also be fabulous to see and like your acts because…we really need some fresh material!’ ‘Thanks for coming. Now…let’s begin. First up is…Muizza Madame Singer, please!’ ‘Hello, I’m Madame Singer and I sing and dance. [...]

An Out of This World Variety Show2025-04-02T23:54:53+00:00

A year of Storyplay!

2025-04-02T23:43:23+00:00

Find all of Porridge & Play Cranhill's adventures here! Blog posts are written by Effie! Celebrating Block 3 Thursday 25th August & Thursday 1st September Our last couple of weeks of Porridge & Play Cranhill were wonderful! We learnt so many new games and songs so it was really hard to choose what to share at the Storyplay Festival. Before we even started one session some of us were playing Chiri Udi Kan Uda together! We decided the first game we'd share at the Festival was going to be Willy, Willy, Willy, Willy Oh. Everyone got a chance to say Change your Style or Stay Like That, like Beauty had taught us and there was so much laughter as we tried to trick each other into moving when they weren’t supposed to. A fter that we brought back some of our amazing dance moves from the warm up for a game of Disco Tag! Genesis and Tiwani were so fast it wasn’t long before most of the room was dancing on the spot hoping that someone would come and dance with them to set them free!  Then Shiva chose to play Shaylin’s game Trees and again everyone was having so much fun creeping slowly and even if they got caught moving, it was just as much fun to try and catch someone else moving as it was [...]

A year of Storyplay!2025-04-02T23:43:23+00:00

We Are ALLSCOTS!!

2025-04-02T23:43:41+00:00

Porridge & Play Castlemilk is back! Find out what the Castlemilk group get up to in their Porridge & Play Hub adventures each week! Block 3 is all about YOU! We are getting ready to make our AllScot Playcards which will be inspired by all your games and Stories. The AllScot Playcards will be on display at our Storyplay Festival which will be happening on Saturday September 17th! Find all of Porridge & Play Castlemilk's adventures here! Blog posts are written by Sarah! Block 3 Week 5 of Porridge & Play Castlemilk Wednesday 17th August It was so exciting to hear The Ice Cream Has All Gone again this week. This rhyme was created by everyone at Porridge & Play Castlemilk and this week we made up the actions. How divine! Hadir had remembered lots of the words and everyone helped with creating the actions to help us all remember it. We all had different animal actions for going to the zoo, we went on a train and Melissa gave us the Choo Choo move. Hadir had us floating after we’d all been rowing in the boat and then we started to sink!  Yahye had us jumping up and down for Bubblegum & Lime ice cream! We played The Circle Game and Khadar was ‘It’- he was so fast at catching! We talked about how we could make the game even [...]

We Are ALLSCOTS!!2025-04-02T23:43:41+00:00

Storyplay Champions at Making Rights Real Event!

2025-04-02T23:55:22+00:00

Have Your Say Through Play is a children’s human rights-based, fun way to support children under-twelve to explore and share their thoughts, feelings and ideas through Lickety Playcard Play. This project was first developed with our Children & Families Network in September 2020, as a way to consult children about the Covid-19 pandemic. Everyone's Children invited us to join them and have our Storyplay Champions show just how have Have Your Say Through Play works! Tuesday 21st June We had a really fantastic time at the recent Making Rights Real Event online! Our Storyplay Champions led a fantastic 20 minute session where we demonstrated how we can ‘Have our SAY through PLAY!’  We went on a Magic Ball adventure to an underwater school! There we met Professor Seal (Taz) who told us that a new student was joining the school very soon and needed the children to come up with ideas for ways to make them feel welcome and happy, because children know what children need!  Professor Seal asked some questions…  What could we do to make a new student feel welcome at a new school?’ ‘They might need support and food. Maybe after school we could play with them or take them to the park, because we have the right to play and we could be their friends!’ - Fish Felicia  ‘We could sing them a [...]

Storyplay Champions at Making Rights Real Event!2025-04-02T23:55:22+00:00

Training Women’s Aid workers in Storyplay

2025-04-02T23:41:37+00:00

17th December 2021 In 2020, Scottish Women’s Aid (SWA) approached Licketyspit to explore a collaboration: ‘When I heard more about Licketyspit all I could think about was how few tools we’ve had (in WA) based on joy and play and love and excitement and art and music and all of the thing to allow us to express emotions and not only get them out but also share them in a really meaningful way with the people we love.’ Marsha Scott CEO SWA In Feb 2021 Licketyspit introduced Storyplay to 30+ Women’s Aid Workers – who immediately understood how they could use this imaginary play-based approach and methodology – “(Storyplay is) a great way to create empathy and connect with a child …who may be unable to understand their feelings & responses / (of) helping Mums and children build a shared experience and address difficult issues” Women's Aid Workers Feb '21 SWA approached Scottish Government to support an innovative collaboration between Scottish Women' Aid and Licketyspit. Last week the first Women’s Aid workers –from Wigtown to Shetland - completed an intensive 5-week online Licketyspit Storyplay Training programme - with flying colours! Storyplay is not as easy as it looks. Learning to facilitate it is to embark on a journey of learning, self-reflection and bold experiment! The WA workers all described a similar experience, initially feeling out of [...]

Training Women’s Aid workers in Storyplay2025-04-02T23:41:37+00:00

Stories of Resilience

2025-04-02T23:39:44+00:00

25th October 2021 This autumn, we were delighted to make a film about Porridge & Play Online as one of 13 Stories of Resilience commissioned by Refugee Action. Working on Zoom has produced a wealth of wonderful video clips of Porridge & Play Online throughout the Pandemic. Lead Actor-pedagogue, Iona Zajac, was able to cherry-pick from these in order to edit together a 5-minute film to provide a window into the essence of this amazing project. The narration, recorded by Storyplay Champion children, draws on child consultation sessions to capture what the project has meant for them. We were delighted to be able to share our families' experiences of Storyplay during the pandemic, alongside such an important group of projects. People who succeed in getting to the UK to claim asylum against the odds have already shown great resilience and courage, but faced with our brutal Asylum system, their sense of relief and hope can often be short-lived. Watch the film here The Home Office needs to do much more to meet the material needs of people seeking asylum. The basic human rights to food, shelter, clothes, school, digital access and transport are not sufficiently met and many charities do vital work to fill the gaps. The pressure of these needs also has a huge impact on mental health and wellbeing - in limbo, isolated and disempowered, [...]

Stories of Resilience2025-04-02T23:39:44+00:00

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