Continuing provision into KS1

👋🏻 Hello and welcome back to our page…a lot has happened since I last posted!

I have now moved on to a headship position in a wonderful school in Manningham, Bradford. Although I’ve stepped away from the classroom, my passion for quality play-based settings has not changed and I continue to champion this approach beyond the Early Years.

Give us a follow … we are very proud of our beautiful setting and want to share the love.

❤️❤️❤️

Green Lane Primary School (@greenlaneprimaryschool) • Instagram photos and videos 134 Followers, 31 Following, 22 Posts - See Instagram photos and videos from Green Lane Primary School ()

🤗 Well, it’s been almost a year since I posted on this page and ALOT has happened in the meantime.

Play continues to be the driving force, underpinning our children’s learning, well being and language development and it is more important than ever that we do what is right for our children.

Having now moved settings, I am continuing to work towards our common goal in developing environments which promote the power of play whilst nurturing each and every child as they make yet another return to school.

This page is officially BACK (page name slightly amended!) and I am very excited to share another school’s journey with you...

Jo x

❤️ this.

All my story broadcasts will now be available to watch on my website.
Link in bio.

I saw this on another page and feel is certainly worth a share..... ❤️❤️❤️

Dear parents with school aged children

You might be inclined to create a minute by minute schedule for your kids. You have high hopes of hours of learning, including online activities, science experiments, and book reports. You’ll limit technology until everything is done! But here’s the thing...

Our kids are just as scared as we are right now. Our kids not only can hear everything that is going on around them, but they feel our constant tension and anxiety. They have never experienced anything like this before. Although the idea of being off of school for 4 weeks sounds awesome, they are probably picturing a fun time like summer break, not the reality of being trapped at home and not seeing their friends.

Over the coming weeks, you will see an increase in behavior issues with your kids. Whether it’s anxiety, or anger, or protest that they can’t do things normally - it will happen. You’ll see more meltdowns, tantrums, and oppositional behavior in the coming weeks. This is normal and expected under these circumstances.

What kids need right now is to feel comforted and loved. To feel like it’s all going to be ok. And that might mean that you tear up your perfect schedule and love on your kids a bit more. Play outside and go on walks. Bake cookies and paint pictures. Play board games and watch movies. Do a science experiment together or find virtual field trips of the zoo. Start a book and read together as a family. Snuggle under warm blankets and do nothing.

Don’t worry about them regressing in school. Every single kid is in this boat and they all will be ok. When we are back in the classroom, we will all course correct and meet them where they are. Teachers are experts at this! Don’t pick fights with your kids because they don’t want to do math. Don’t scream at your kids for not following the schedule. Don’t mandate 2 hours of learning time if they are resisting it.

If I can leave you with one thing, it’s this: at the end of all of this, your kids’ mental health will be more important than their academic skills. And how they felt during this time will stay with them long after the memory of what they did during those 4 weeks is long gone. So keep that in mind, every single day.

Stay safe. X

Our new enchanted woodland area combines both our reading and small world area in Year 2. The children love stories and being so close to the small world enables them to take their story language and imagination directly into their small world play.

The adults can often be found in here too 🌳🍄🍃❤️

Our chosen text for next half term in Year 2 is ‘Greta and the Giants’. The children help set up with area today with limited knowledge of who Greta Thunberg was- by the end of the day, their curiosity led them to asking some very inquisitive , and often very deep, questions. Now they can’t wait to learn more!

We always set up the areas with the children so they feel a sense of ownership and we use this time to have some wonderful conversations...

Open ended resources!

I often get asked what resources schools should invest in when developing their provision. My answer is always open ended!!

Resources such as these in the pictures are familiar to the children; they have been working with them since Nursery. In providing such resources, the children are able to plan their creations knowing what will always be available- we enhance the areas based on the time of year and their interests.

Watching them ‘get to work’ on a project is amazing... these Y1 boys set about on a joint project- designing their dream car. We provide extended periods of time to design, evaluate, amend and complete their creations! Plenty of time too for those wonderful discussions we all love to overhear. 🤗

🏘 Our children in Year 2 have really taken to all aspects of being an architect.

These photographs were taken this morning where we observed them drawing scaled plans with measurements, creating 3D models and floor plans for their designs.

After watching an episode of Grand Designs, they can’t wait to take on even greater projects!!!

Engaging Boys...

Although I don’t particularly like this stereotype our data and that of many schools still indicates the need for our attention. A play based approach enables teachers to follow the children’s interests, focussing on engagement which is a state in which they are likely to make the most progress. Teaching them within such engaging contexts ensures they are feeling the value and purpose of the core skills we are teaching them.

A group of our children, mostly boys, have developed a love for ‘Robot Wars’! ( we were just as excited!!!) They have spent weeks going back to their intricate models-evaluating, designing and developing them (applying their reading, writing and maths).
Their engagement has been amazing to see... Was it planned? Was it in our curriculum? Did we take the lead? No.

Take every opportunity to follow their interests ... 🧡

I realise we have been very quiet recently but that’s not to say that the children haven’t been amazingly busy as always!!!

Here are our wonderful Year 1 children who spent all afternoon to building this incredible stage for their finger puppet show!

Such a perfect example of play being the driving force for learning where the context has been defined by the child.This will always lead to high levels of engagement and provide the perfect opportunity for the children to practise all the skills you have taught them whilst giving them the confidence to take the lead 🧡