Active Play

Introduction

As you know from our recent newsletter, we are changing our playtimes and lunchtimes to a new approach that we believe will help our children to engage positively in active play outdoors.

Research tells us that children who spend time exercising outdoors have good physical health and mental well-being. Being outdoors offers children the chance to be imaginative, adventurous, collaborate with others and build resilience through managed risk taking. Children’s play is fascinating! They create a wide range of scenarios that develop excellent problem-solving skills as well as team building and conflict resolution. In the right environment children can transfer essential life skills back into the curriculum, not to mention make long lasting memories to take with them on their life journey.

As part of our fun and active lunchtime project, all staff have received training and we are excited about the future journey. We know that we have lots still to do to get to where we want to be but, with your help and support we know we can make our lunchtimes a really positive experience for all our children.

Many of our parents have already completed our parent questionnaire and we are delighted with the support we have so far received. We would also like to say thank you for all the donations that are starting to make our journey possible.

If you have any questions or think you can support please do let us know. Many thanks for your support.

Mrs Perry, Headteacher
July 2024

The Importance of Play

UN Rights of the Child:
Article 31 (leisure, play and culture) Every child has the right to relax, play and take part in a wide range of cultural and artistic activities.

At Wheelwright Lane we believe that active play has a vital role in children’s health, happiness and wellbeing. It creates children who are independent, confident, imaginative, adaptable, social and able to assess risks.

Research has shown that children spend 20% of their time in school playing. This equates to 1.4 years of their school attendance. To ensure that this time and our terrific school grounds are used to their full potential, our school has adopted an active play approach. This enables the children to explore play in their own imaginative ways.

We believe that play is essential for physical, emotional, social, spiritual and intellectual development of each child. An active play approach promotes a more inclusive play environment and provides more opportunities to develop life skills like cooperation, teamwork and problem solving.

In March 2024, we surveyed different stakeholders for their views on play time, they highlighted the need for enhanced play opportunities. Some of the comments were; ‘I’d like my child to have the opportunity to play with children from different year groups’, ‘the children need more resources’ and ‘I’d like my children to have the same opportunities that I did as a child – more outdoor play, be able to climb trees and explore the natural world around us’.

Imaginative play – Children role-played being various minibeasts after discovering them in our school’s natural environments

Imaginative play

Mastery play – Children are practicing their scooter new skill until they master it

Mastery play

Communication play – Children enjoying the cars small world toys

Communication play

Locomotor play – Children love our new rope swings and these help children to develop their physical skills

Locomotor play

Dramatic play – Children used our small world toys to put on a ‘dinosaur show’

Dramatic play

Children have the opportunity to eat outdoors if they usually bring a packed lunch to school.

Eating outdoors

Eating Outdoors

We know that children will often rush their food in order to get outside in the fresh air to play so why not take food outside!

We have a number of picnic benches and seating areas that the children can sit to eat with their friends and the fantastic donations of picnic blankets will mean that children have the perfect space to eat. Of course, there will still be the option for children to eat in the hall with their packed lunch if they wish. All school hot dinners must still be eaten indoors.

Active Play Clothing

As part of our Active Play initiative, children are encouraged to access play across the whole outdoor site, including the fields, regardless of weather.

Your child will need to bring every day:

A coat with hood and a pair of named wellies.
Waterproof trousers are also encouraged so your child doesn’t need to worry about getting their school clothes wet/dirty when they are lifting tyres, pallets or playing in dens!
Spare clothes in a bag will help your child to be prepared if they get carried away and be clean and dry ready to go back to the classroom
Trainers will allow your child to play games such as football with their friends and access areas such as the climbing wall.

This is so they can engage in play across all areas, every day, regardless of the weather. Without wellies they will unfortunately have to be restricted to the main playground only.

All items of clothing and footwear must be labelled with your child’s name.