Glendenning Public School, New South Wales
Early childhood education has a long history of valuing play and this understanding is becoming more prevalent in primary education. The Early Years Learning Framework for Australia (2009:15) outlines the many roles educators take in a play and the range of strategies they use to support learning. These include:
- Engaging in sustained shared conversations within play experience to extend children’s thinking
- Providing a balance between child-led, child-initiated and educator supported learning
- Creating learning environments to support learning
- Interacting with babies and children within play to build attachment
- Supporting the inclusion of all children in play
- Recognising spontaneous teachable moments as they occur and using intentional teaching strategies such as demonstrating, and engaging in shared thinking and problem-solving.
We recently had the privilege of working closely with the team at Glendenning Public School, New South Wales and transforming their plain playground play space into fun, engaging, vibrant learning space.
