Playful Pathways
Service Design for Educational Care
Enhancing Communication in Educational Care Through Playful Engagement
Client
CrossReach, Erskine Waterfront Campus
Role
Project coordinator
Design researcher
Workshop facilitator
Product creator
Design team
Shaoxiong Guo
Dharmishta S. Naidu
Abby Milliken
Sijin Li
Xianrui Fu
Where
Glasgow, UK
Duration
02.2024-04.2024 (3 months)
Overview
Playful Pathways aims to enhance communication in educational care through interactive engagement, focusing on how past pupils can support current pupils in the care system via play elements. It looks at building relationships within the care education system in Scotland. The developed Mentorship Programme looks at how the lived experience of past pupils can help to improve the experience for current pupils with safe-gaurders as facilitators.
A tale of past pupils
Past students shared that the staff at Crossreach couldn't tell the kids right away that they couldn't go home because it would be too cruel. Staff will only tell children to stay for a few weeks and will continue this deception. This well-intentioned lie increases the child's insecurity and unease, which leads to a refusal to learn with the school.
After left school, the past pupil worked for a couple of years. Reflecting on his time at Crossreach, he began to appreciate it, feeling it was a place that genuinely cared for him. This realization inspired him to give back and do something for the current pupils, to reduce the pain they had experienced the current students are suffering.
Specialist School
This institution offers residential care and education for children and young people, providing the right support for them to heal, grow, and succeed.
Where
Who
What
Current Pupils
Some children and young people are unable to live within their family settling and must live in residential school.
School Staff
Seeking innovative ways to heal pupils while providing them with safety.
Past Pupils
Adults with cared experience who have left school and worked for years.
“How could the experience of young people in educational care be enhanced with the input of past pupils in the care system to better meets the needs and experiences of the young people?”
Research Plan
After desk research, we believe that current pupils is the core of what needs to be serviced in this project. Whilst the other roles also needed to be served, those services were there to help them support the current pupils and were not the main focus. So we developed the Stakeholder Map with current pupils as the core and used different coloured dots to show the relatives of the stakeholder's relationship with young people. It was used as a basis to construct the research plan.
Educational Care Stakeholder Map, as the result of Case Study Findings
Green dot = next to highest level consistent interaction for child
Yellow dot = next to inconsistent level interaction for child
Red dot = next to little to minimal level interaction for child
Yellow and Green dot = next to in between level interaction for child
Yellow and Red dot = next to in between level interaction for child
Participants: Since the project period was only three months, we decided to research the core Stakeholders. Stakeholders such as family members are already far away from children, it is more worthwhile to prioritise research on people that children in the current situation can come into contact with on a daily basis.
Research Goal: Trying to find the intersection between what Current Pupils want, what Past Pupils can offer, and what School Staff want to improve and the boundaries that must be protected. Narrowed down from a broad scope to an area that can be designed and practised.
Methodology
Interview - External Social Workers
Lead Officer for the Promise
Education Support Officer
Research Goal
The concept of "Past Pupils" was introduced as a new role in the child care system, with its outline explored within current policies.
To reduce bias, two experienced East Lothian social workers were interviewed, offering insights into Scotland's care policies, The Promise, and GIRFEC.
Research Question:
What is the particular value of past pupils' involvement for current pupils?
What do past pupils need to be aware of as they enter the care system as a new role?
How can Past pupils better engage current pupils as strangers?
Research Goal
Exploring how to implement new services in familiar environments for children. The goal is to deeply understand their living conditions and relationships, identify the roles staff play at this stage, and determine what support they can provide.
Research Question:
What is the daily life of the children like?
What are the relationships and interactions between the children and the staff?
What is the school environment like, and what elements can be incorporated into the new service system?
Interview & Ethnography - Internal Education Leader
Modelling the school environment.
Workshop - Current Pupils
“The children are leaving Earth to live on a new planet. There is a well-experienced space cadet (past pupils) to help them. ”
Research Goal
The study explored what kind of support children hope to receive at different stages of their care journey.
To reduce harm, an engagement tool was designed to guide children through four story scenarios, reflecting: leaving home, arriving at Crossreach, growing up there, and eventually leaving.
Research Questions
what kind of past pupil they like？
What activities current pupils would like to do to find a suitable past pupils？
What is the children want but don't get at Crossreach？
What concerns they have at Crossreach and would like to turn to the past pupil for help？
Interview - Past Pupils
Research Goal
As adults with care experience, past pupils can more accurately describe the psychological and physical state that current pupils are experiencing right now. Interviews were conducted to find opportunities and ways in which past and current pupils could build a relationship and the gifts that the service was designed to ultimately bring to the child.
Research Question:
How do you understand the children's state of mind?
Any suggestions for breaking the stranger ice and building trust?
What are the educational targets you want to bring to children?
Past pupils Interview setting.
Insights
Value
Integrating past pupils with lived experience benefits current students by fostering understanding and connection.
Highlighting these experiences as valuable attributes enhances engagement, comfort, and positively impacts the care education system.
Relationship
Building genuine, long-term relationships fosters trust and safety.
Active engagement and sharing experiences create productive connections, reducing corrective measures.
Authentic role models build trust, leading to openness and better communication, which is vital in educational care.
Activities
Sensory and non-verbal activities reduce stress and boost pupil engagement.
Gatekeepers can enhance participation.
Use a toolkit of varied methods and integrate modern elements to make interactions accessible and engaging for all ages.
Metaphor: children are shifted again and again through lies and jargon, as if they were walking a ladder between mountain tops. Ideally, communication should be like water, so that children feel free and soft.
Communication
Communication should be gentle, like water, not instilling fear in children.
It should be relatable and jargon-free.
Understand each child's traits, balance efficiency with empathy, and avoid direct, triggering questions.
Foster a language that resonates with young people for better connection.
Data Analytics - User Journey Mapping Iteration
Version 1 describes a child's experience from the time they enter the care system to the time they leave. It focuses on the current situation and does not include the participation of past pupils. A clear overview of the child's emotional changes, stakeholders, and points of contact at each stage is provided.
Version 3 continues to build on the research of the previous two versions and develops a preliminary service blueprint model.
Version 2 incorporates the involvement of past pupils into the journey of current pupils, highlighting their interactions and mutual contributions within the service. It examines key aspects such as how both groups become aware of the service, their processes of joining, their roles in contributing and growing through participation, and the benefits and aspirations associated with the service for each.
Development
A service was designed to bring past pupils into the care system as mentors to establish a long-term companion partnership with children who have experienced trauma and have difficulty trusting strangers, and to achieve transmission education.
2. The internal educator, as gatekeeper, must be present and involved in every scenario, whether for legal requirements or to reassure the child.
3. Group activities help children get to know strange past pupils in the early stages. And helps children find favourite adults.
1. Past pupils must be trained before touching the children. The guidelines for this training are extremely careful. In order to protect the physical and mental health of children, very detailed explanations of what can and cannot be done are required.
4. One-on-one matches are better for building intimate, long-term relationships. It helps to carry out the next activities.
5. The core part is that the past pupils accompany the children as mentorship and in the process teach them life skills and transmit life lessons on how to live in the world as a cared people.
6. A graduation ceremony is held at the end of the service. All past pupils and educators celebrate the success of the children as they grow up. The grown-ups are encouraged to come back to the care system to help new children in the future.
Service Journey Map
Cultivating Care Connections: The Playful Pathway Mentorship
Blueprint
Outcome
To facilitate the service we have designed a card kit. There is a wide range of activities for children and adults to choose from at different stages of the service.
LEGO
Challenge
Let the pupils use LEGOs to try and recreate some of their favourite things. This could be anything from their favourite place, food, object or hobby. They can be as creative as they like and then see if they want to have people guess what they’ve made.
30 mins
X People
For the 1st Session
10 Icebreaking Cards
Fishing
Have a try at at growing your fishing skills with a casual outdoor session where everybody can pick up some tips and tricks from people and hopefully get a snap with whatever they catch.
All Day
X People
For the 2nd - 5th Sessions
13 Building Trust Cards
Three Legged Race
The pairs must stand next to each other, tieing one of their legs to their partners to create 3 'legs' between the pair. On go, the pairs race to see who can end up at the ending point first.
10 mins
x Ppl
For the 6th - 14th Sessions
20 Building Skills Cards
Fieldtrips
1- 7 Days
X People
Grab your backpack and get ready! Whether you're deciphering ancient artifacts, analyzing ecosystems, or navigating cultural interactions, each field trip offers a unique opportunity to develop practical skills that extend beyond the classroom
For the 15th Session
7 Celebration Cards
The card front is distinguished by four colors, indicating different sessions.
I’d like to leave.
‘Stop’ Card for pupils to participate at their own pace
Blank Card
?
Open to suggestions from pupils,
use your creativity!
? mins
X People
Open Suggestion Card for new activity Ideas
