Outdoor play

- Miss Shale on the importance of outdoor play

One of the most exciting things about our Pre-prep moving to the new school site in Chaucer Road in 2012 was the amount of outdoor space that became available to us. We now have access to an effective outdoor environment that includes the playground, field, woods, tennis courts, an outdoor stage, adventure playground and sensory garden, and make optimum use of all these areas – whenever weather permits.

Mrs Osmant, our wonderful classroom assistant, and I work hard to provide the girls with plenty of opportunities for sustained child-led activities, and value the key role that we and other adults play in extending the girls’ knowledge through appropriate intervention. Outdoor play is vitally important in supporting the girls’ social, physical, academic and linguistic development. We integrate play and learning by ensuring that the girls have as much access to the outside classroom as possible.

In order to make outdoor play investigative and open-ended we have very little fixed equipment, and lots of resources that can be used and manipulated in a variety of ways. The girls regularly make many amazing things from our loose parts collection of crates, palettes, pipes, bricks and tyres, for instance, we have seen rockets, buses, swimming pools and castles take shape.

The girls show a great deal of inventiveness when using their construction skills with a range of ropes, tarpaulins, beanies, pegs and so on, making all kinds of different shelters and dens, both in the playground and the woods.

The sensory garden offers a wonderful opportunity for the girls to foster a love of nature and wildlife whilst also progressing through the ‘Understanding the world’ area of our curriculum. In the winter we were busy planting bulbs, and have been rewarded by the sight of beautiful daffodils, tulips and crocuses springing up in the spring. We are currently growing a range of salad leaves and other vegetables, as well as a variety of colourful flowers to attract bees and butterflies to the garden.

The outdoor classroom offers plenty of opportunities for the girls to play and work together as a team. They discuss ideas and inspire each other whilst building up strong collaborative skills. Mrs Osmant and I have been entertained on so many occasions, and impressed by the imaginative puppet shows, role-plays, games and musical performances which regularly take place outside.

The Reception girls can be seen working as a team to build a hotel, measuring objects in the sensory garden, using story-telling skills to put on a puppet show, preparing the raised beds and planting our salad leaves seeds, and having fun inside the den.

The Year 1 girls enjoyed a beautiful sunny day in the sensory garden, finding the quince tree in full blossom the girls sketched the delicate flowers.

In Year 2 PE and Games lessons the girls have been practising their skipping skills. They can backward skip, forward skip and some girls can even cross skip. The girls skip at break and lunch time too, so they have been getting better and better and fitter and fitter! Well done to the girls for practising what they have been learning in their lessons so that they improve!

Year 3 pupils had an incredible day in London yesterday, having been learning about the impact of the Olympics, famous buildings and events from the past. The weather was perfect and the trip combined a wonderful experience of viewing London from above whilst on the Eye, a 4D experience, and a brilliant and very educational boat cruise along the River Thames up to the Tower of London. It was such a fitting end to the topic, for the girls to actually see for themselves what they have been learning about.

Year 4 pupils have been learning about sound this term and have enjoyed listening out for all of the sounds in the Junior School garden. The girls have learned that sound is produced through vibrations, which create sound waves.

The girls in Year 5 have been conducting scientific experiments outdoors, comparing and grouping every day materials based on their conductivity, and experimenting with bubble wrap and other insulators to see the effectiveness of each on keeping hot water warm, testing with a thermometer and recording their findings.

On our recent residential trip to the Isle of Wight the Year 6 girls took advantage of being outside, and enjoyed spontaneous games of volleyball between activities. At school the girls use the table tennis tables in the school gardens, and make the most of the outdoor space to play a range of sports during break and lunch time.

When the weather is good the girls in late stay club take advantage of having the space and play equipment to themselves. There’s always the opportunity for a rest and a chat outdoors too!