Risky Play – Four Seats

Four Seats → Risky Play

/foundations/risky-play/four-seats

The Four Seats framework maps how adults across home, school, system, and specialist roles co‑protect safety, dignity, and agency during Risky Play. Each seat reduces cost from a different angle; together they stabilize the field.

East — Parents

Home routines, values, and mantras shape cost-of-trying before play even begins.

West — School

Active BRIG fieldcraft: scaffold, spotlight micro-wins, coach and mediate without controlling.

North — Admin

Shared values, predictable frameworks, and consistent problem-solving pathways.

South — Specialists

Adaptations, accommodations, and insight into needs to reduce context-switch cost.

East — Parents / Home

  • Teach play routines and hygiene: how to start, sustain, join, and clean up.
  • Teach skills + protocols: negotiate, collaborate, compromise, praise, apologise, take turns.
  • Ground play in mantras of safety, collegiality, dignity, and sportsmanship (“be fair, be safe, be kind”).

West — School / Staff

  • Initiate, facilitate, sustain, and end Risky Play using BRIG moves.
  • Jump in / fade out based on safety, dignity, and agency thresholds.
  • Use scaffolded facilitation: inviting/asking vs telling/directing; bounded choices; reframing.
  • Function as coaches, cheerleaders, narrators, and mediators—never puppeteers.
  • Micro-wins: kids pause and resume play without adult intervention. Spotlight + narrate these to amplify internal growth (“I can do hard things”).

North — Administrators / District

  • Implement shared values, protocols, frameworks (“Everyone chooses how they play; everyone ensures their choices don’t erode others’ fun”).
  • Provide predictable problem-solving pathways: take-turns • rock-paper-scissors • coin flip • grab-an-adult • do both/neither.
  • Ensure expectations are shared across staff to reduce conflict and lower cognitive cost.

South — Specialists

  • Introduce equipment adaptations, accommodations, and modifications.
  • Collaborate with West-seat staff on emerging needs, preferences, and exceptionality-informed supports.
  • Example adaptations: ramps for visually-impaired learners; balls with bells; alternate-access versions of activities.

Thunderbolt — The Four-Seat Promise

Agency

Each seat protects real choice by lowering cost from its vantage point.

Dignity

No shame, no coercion; adults create conditions where kids can try, fail, reset, and try again.

Safety

Intervene when moves become [bomb]conflict|actions that erode others’ fun or agency[/bomb].

Four Seats = one field, many guardians. Risky Play thrives when all four align.