At St Mary’s we recognise the importance of the children being physically active and literate. To support this we offer a wide variety of activities during lunch and playtimes to enable them to participate and engage in physical activity. These include playing with a qualified play leader, using the climbing equipment, chalking on boards, reading and writing in a covered area and playing with different play equipment such as skipping ropes, balls and hula hoops. We believe this offers a holistic approach, that enables the children to develop additional skills including teamwork, displaying and living our values and returning to class ready to focus on lessons.
St Mary’s is an ‘All Weather’ school and children will play outside in nearly all conditions. We have developed our outdoor play provision to offer opportunities to:
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- Use and develop the skills learnt in P.E. lessons and at clubs
- Be physically active for 60 minutes a day
- Develop leaders at every level from children to staff. This will include using play leaders from the Juniors, therefore creating strong links between the schools
- Engage children in activities that will support their development and interests
- Develop social, moral, spiritual and cultural skills
- Develop teamwork, communication and problem-solving skills
- Display the values of the school: forgiveness, perseverance, respect, friendship, generosity, responsibility, humility, compassion, trust, peace, courage and thankfulness
- Improve behaviour through focused activities
- Access many areas of the curriculum through the weekly lunchtime timetable
- Include every child
- Return to class ready to focus on the afternoon lessons
This is achieved by having different, well resourced, activities on offer across the playground and allowing the children to choose where they would like to access, resulting in a calmer, more engaging and focused playtime experience.
