Outdoor Play!
We have always worked on trying to ensure our grounds are developed as much as possible to support children’s play and learning – and there is always more we want to do! This year we are going to have a real push on maximising the use of our outdoors so, as well as appointing a ‘Play Leader – Mrs Joanne White – to lead the developments, we are asking for your help and support too.
Our first challenge is to enable the use of our school field right through the year – not just in summer. We have been inspired by our colleagues at Rosa Street Primary who have developed their outdoor play so much, they have been awarded the OPAL (Outdoor Play and Learning) gold award. We’re not quite at that stage yet, but with your support, Joanne’s enthusiasm and our Rights Respecting Ambassadors leading the pupil’s voice, we can really make a great start now.
How can you help?
This certainly isn’t about cost! Developing play outside is about getting back to basics. Joanne has created a list of ‘stuff’ that we want to collect. I am sure that some of you will recognise the same things that you might have played with outdoors when you were younger! We want to develop areas on our school field such as Den Building, Role Play, Small world activities, Drama, Mud Kitchen, Investigation Station etc. Look out for Joanne’s Wishlist – and the competition that our Rights Respecting Ambassadors are launching to see which class are the ‘best collectors’!
The Winning Class
The winning class, with the most ‘stuff’ collected was Year 4.