Introduction
St Nicholas Catholic Primary School recognises that play is an important part of a happy and healthy childhood and as a school we should provide high quality, sustainable play opportunities for children regardless of their needs and abilities. These inclusive opportunities in play are achieved by offering carefully considered outdoor spaces that offer a real choice of accessible play experiences.
Commitment
At St Nicholas Catholic Primary School, we are committed to using these procedures to guide our planning and actions in providing play opportunities for children. We believe play has a vital role in children’s happiness and wellbeing. It creates children who are independent, confident, imaginative, adaptable, social and able to assess risks.
At St Nicholas Catholic Primary School we aim to:
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Implement the changes set out in this policy gradually and systematically.
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Be informed by the children and work with the children to create a space that is exciting, engaging and enthuses children. They will feel safe to take risks and explore their world.
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To work in partnership with parents and the community making use of local expertise.
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Build projects collaboratively, respecting existing boundaries.
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Facilitate and encourage play.
Rationale
Children spend up to 20% of their time in school at play. Therefore, this time needs to be coherent and planned for. Changes in society have led to ‘play poverty’ for today’s children. This makes their play opportunities at school even more vital.
Better play leads to happier children and in turn less behaviour problems, a more positive attitude to school, skills development, fewer accidents and more effective learning in the classroom as less staff time is spent resolving issues.
In addition to these reasons to prioritise play in school, Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child states that ‘A child has the right to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts.’
As a result of implementing this policy within school we believe that children will:
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be happier;
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increase self-awareness and self-esteem;
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improve language and communication skills;
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improve concentration;
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improve their imagination, independence and creativity;
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improve social skills;
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be resilient, confident, good problem solvers;
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be ready for anything as a result of negotiation and independence of thought;
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be better at problem solving;
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develop life skills; and
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improve physical development, co-ordination and fitness.
Risk and Benefit
Many research studies have found that the social, physical and mental benefits to children of managed risks are vast. Children become more resilient, adaptable and are keen to try new experiences. Children should be provided with opportunities to challenge themselves and also to experience successes and failures. At St Nicholas Catholic Primary School we are committed to providing these experiences for our children in a managed way. The Health and Safety Executive offer guidance on the provision of play in educational settings and state that:
‘HSE fully supports the provision of play for all children in a variety of environments. HSE understands and accepts that this means children will often be exposed to play environments which, whilst well managed, carry a degree of risk and sometimes potential dangers’. (HSE, 2013)
Our role as play providers is to facilitate opportunities for children to encounter and manage risk for themselves in an environment that is as safe as it needs to be rather than completely devoid of risk. The benefit to children of challenging play opportunities should be balanced with any potential risk when carrying out risk assessments. We will adopt a risk-benefit approach to manage our duty of care to protect and our duty of care to provide for children's needs.
St Nicholas Catholic Primary School will use the Health and Safety Executive’s guidance on Managing Risk in Play and Leisure (www.hse.gov.uk) and 'The Statement on Managing Risk in Play Provision' (Appendix 1) as its principle guiding documents in making decisions relating to risk and play.
Adults Role in Play
We are committed to working with children to provide the play experiences that they want in their school. We will have a continuing dialogue with children about the play provision in the playground. Adult’s role will also be to facilitate play and encourage children to assess the risks and benefits of activities within the play setting. The school is working with an outside agency called OPAL (www.outdoorplayandlearning.org.uk) to help guide a strategic approach to developing play at St Nicholas Catholic Primary School.
In addition to this the curricular lead for play Mrs Emily Martin will work in collaboration with our Play Leader Rachel Fox, parents, teachers, teaching assistants and the children to implement the changes highlighted in this policy. Play Workers will ensure that the broadest possible range of play opportunities are available to children, to observe, reflect and analyse the play that is happening and select a mode of intervention or make a change to the play space if needed.
Play Workers ensure that the play space is inclusive – supporting all children to make the most of the opportunities available in their own way.
Environment
At St Nicholas Catholic Primary School we will:
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use the outdoor space as a natural resource for learning and playing
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include the children when planning for playing and learning outdoors
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ensure that the outdoor area offers children the opportunity to investigate and explore and use their imagination and creativity
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encourage the children to respect the outdoor environment and care for living things
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give children the opportunity to manage the space and freedom afforded by the outdoors
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enrich the quality of the environment to maximise variety of play types and increase play value