North Lanarkshire Council: Learning through Play

For many years, it has been well-known that the best way for children to learn is through play. This concept is embedded in all nursery schools, and the North Lanarkshire project concentrated on standardising the learning process and the learning environment as young pupils move from Nursery to Primary, one with a particular emphasis on developing cross curricular problem solving through contextualised learning.

Process

The project involved two Primary schools – Rochsolloch Primary and Kildrum Primary – and the associated Nurseries at Rochsolloch and Kildrum. A key feature of the project was to set up active learning areas within the classroom, with the support and assistance of nursery staff.

Rochsolloch Primary reviewed their classroom organisation and established learning areas similar to that of the nursery, which were well-resourced and identified open-ended challenges that the children would tackle in a given learning area.

Kildrum primary focused more on the activities, generating challenges which encouraged the children to use the language of problem solving while covering many aspects of their curriculum. While Rochsolloch had set groups of mixed ability children who rotated around the learning areas, Kildrum operated a signing-up procedure allowing children to choose which activities they did, and ensured they encountered different groups of children in their play sessions.

Success

Both schools have commented that the children greatly enjoy this learning experience, and are becoming more fluent in using problem solving language, expressing their ideas and opinions and in reporting back. The children are also demonstrating that they are listening to their peers and incorporating successful ideas and building upon failed attempts when approaching challenges. The staff feel that they know the children in their classes much better than before, and have a more accurate knowledge of their strengths and weaknesses. Another benefit has been the increased liaison between the Nursery and Primary staff. They have enjoyed participating in a professional dialogue, which has impacted on their day-to-day practice.

North Lanarkshire has expressed a commitment to the focus on transition and the development of learning through play and is producing guidelines and support materials, which will be given to all schools within the authority.