“The more risks you allow children to take, the better they learn to take care of themselves” Roald Dahl. The different ways in which children learn are fundamental to our Early Years curriculum and our well qualified and highly skilled practitioners provide opportunities for children to display three characteristics of effective learning in both our wellresourced outdoor provision: playing and exploring - children investigate and experience things, and ‘have a go’; active learning - children concentrate and keep on trying if they encounter difficulties, and enjoy achievements;
For some of us, this statement brings back happy memories of our childhood days, which were filled with freedom and what is now termed in education ‘Risky Play.’
as simple as climbing a tree, a child can experiment, solve problems, think creatively, and co-operate with others. The chance to experience opportunities for unstructured play, in which a child can decide what to do, with whom and how, promotes positive self-esteem, autonomy, and confidence.
Memories of weekends and school holidays, consisting of playing in the local park, climbing trees, whizzing around on the roundabout, and playing hide and seek in the woods, without the supervision of an adult! In this day and age of risk assessments and safeguarding, it can often be difficult to reproduce such opportunities for risky play. At Newbridge Preparatory School, our aim is to put that type of experience back into today’s version of childhood. Why? Because such outdoor play promotes cognitive, physical, social, and emotional well-being. Through a play activity www.wolverhamptonwestmag.co.uk
creating and thinking critically children have and develop their own ideas, make links between ideas, and develop strategies for doing things. For the more robust activities we have strong links with The Kingswood Trust who provide the opportunity for children from Nursery to Year Six to experience all of this within a safe and secure environment. Children in Nursery experience a term of Forest School, Reception children enjoy 3 seasonal visits and children in Year groups One to Year Six attend joint adventure days. Our Year Three and Four girls are also fortunate to experience a three day residential where the girls climb trees, forage for food and cook on an open fire, to name a few things. At Newbridge Preparatory School we offer high levels of academic challenge preparing girls for the 11 plus but more importantly offer the gift of childhood and developing girls into wellrounded happy individuals. 139