Grounded in Truth

Provocation: children learn teachers; if every child has an educator who nurtures and respects them each child will know they are a powerful learner with the resources to overcome adversity.

The theme for 2019 Reconciliation Week is Grounded in Truth: Walk Together with Courage. Reconciliation is essentially about relationships, relationships between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and non-aboriginal Australians. Relationships woven together by the narrative of our colonial history and strengthened through a shared understanding.

June 3rd marks the end of National Reconciliation Week, the anniversary of the Mabo decision and the legal recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the traditional owners and custodians of lands. We acknowledge the first Nations People  – the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples – and pay our respects to Elders past, present and emerging.Our school stands in Boandik Country, servicing the present families of Berrin (Mount Gambier).

From Dreamtime to Colonisation Berrin was inhabited by the Boandik people. This country encompasses the areas from Rivoli Bay to the mouth of the Glenelg River. The land is green and fertile, the First Nations people lived off the land, the bounty that each season had to offer and they abided the laws passed down by the ancestors.

The name Boandik is derived from Bung-an-ditj: people of the reeds; inspired by this landscape prior to the colonisation of these lands in the mid-19th Century. The traditional custodians were not aggressive people; they simply had the misfortune of inhabiting what was considered prime pastoral lands, highly desirable to early colonists who quickly altered the environment. Consequently the land was lost, disease took hold and those who posed a threat to livestock were killed. Many traditional Boandik lost their lives, some were massacred and others poisoned – the last of the traditional custodians died around the turn of the century. Those who survived were considered “civilised”; they adapted, becoming station hands, stockman or domestic servants – resulting in the decline of the Boandik people. The Boandik people lost their language and culture.

Natunda was a Boandik woman from Berrin who was given during a murapina (as was custom) to a man from the Pinejunga tribe. Whilst living in the Aboriginal camp at Penola, Natunda engaged in a relationship with stockman, William Brice, who worked on the Cameron Sheep Station. The Cameron’s appear to have adhered to their lease, providing the Aboriginal people access to the land, and upheld their rights to their language and customs, contrary to many at the time.

Annie Brice, was born around 1849 at the Pinejunga camp in Penola, with her mother moving on during Annie’s early years. We know (through sources at the Mary MacKillop Centre, Penola) that Annie spent her early childhood living between the Aboriginal camp and the station. Annie was bilingual, fluent in both the Boandik language of her mother’s family and her father’s English. At a time when her mother’s people were rapidly declining and finding it increasingly difficult to maintain their traditional way of life, Annie was afforded a number of key relationships.

https://anniebricestory.wordpress.com/

The first of which was that of the Cameron family.  Annie was baptized at about 7 years of age, her sponsor Margaret Cameron indicating that Annie was significant in their lives. Annie was confirmed in 1867.  Documentation in convent diaries, by the Sisters, affectionately refer to Annie as Nancy providing evidence that Annie was involved with the local Catholic nuns. It is likely that Annie’s strong work ethic was fostered by these nuns. Annie was welcomed to undertake schooling by Alexander Cameron’s niece Mary Mackillop who began as governess in 1860. Sister Mary McKillop (Australia’s Saint) nurtured the young Annie teaching her to read and write; a skill that would place her in good stead in years to come.

Photo: Mary MacKilliop’s first school house in a stable (Flinders University).

Annie held down a number of jobs as a domestic servant and moved to Gambiertown where she worked with Christina Smith who opened up her home for boarding and ran the School for Aborigines. Christina Smith was a pioneer for reconciliation, at a time when the Aboriginal population was rapidly diminishing. Christina like the Cameron’s allowed the local Aboriginal people to speak their language and keep their culture whilst educating them and providing board. She was an advocate and a protector. Annie Brice was one of the many young Boandik people supported by Ms Smith.

Photo: Christina Smith’s school. (Mount Gambier Library/Less Hill collection)

Annie lived a hard life by today’s standards; as she entered adulthood she forged her own path. Armed with her religion, a solid work ethic, the ability to read and right and her sleeping swag Annie overcame hardship and adversity. Growing up between two worlds Annie developed the resilience and resources to endure life as an Aboriginal woman and a single mother. In the face of prejudice, mistreatment, abuse, injustice, grief, poverty and overwhelming odds she survived. 170 years on her story grounds us in truth and we walk with courage together.

As educators relationships underpin the work we do; we have the capacity like those that shaped Annie’s childhood to make all the difference to a child’s future trajectory. And like Annie our students will be powerful learners capable of navigating whatever life throws at them.

Annie’s Mob – A Summary

Annie maintained a contact with her father throughout her life. She had thirteen children and was married twice. Annie’s first son, Joseph, was fathered by the Penola gaol keeper who likely took advantage of Annie when she was 18 – as she was frequently locked in the cells at Penola. Joseph was placed in the Destitute Asylum and later adopted out. Her next son Walter is believed to have been fathered by a barman with whom Annie worked at the Royal Oak Hotel. When Annie petitioned for maintenance Thomas Burt convinced the courts that he was not the father of Annie’s son. Two year’s later Annie gave birth the Mary Jane (father not documented). The Border Watch (Mount Gambier SA, 12 February, 1876) reported Annie as a “reputed prostitute”. She was charged with ”deserting” her children and ordered that the children be sent to the Industrial School. Annie was successful in gaining a second chance. Another child Minnie was born before Annie married her first husband. Emile Jacquelin fathered Lucy, Annie and Emil. After his death “Nancy Jacquelin, of Mount Gambier, widow, was charged with having neglected to send her children William and Mary Brice to school for 35 days during last quarter. She said the reason she did not send them, was that their earnings was the only support she had” (Border Watch, Mount Gambier, June 28 1882). The Border Watch reported (Education Report 1881, Mount Gambier, June 28 1882) “In some families it is not a question of willingness to send their children to school, but of how they are to exist if they do so. Daily bread is a more paramount consideration than education, and the cases … of Annie Jacquelin, and several others show that we have among us those that are not in a position to educate their children if they are not helped from outside”. Annie had two more illegitimate children, Elizabeth who died within a year of being born and Agnes, before marrying a second time. Her second husband, George David Holmes met Annie in 1887 and fathered Jack, Ethel, Ada and George David.  He brought up their family including Walter, Mary Jane, the Jacquelin children, Agnes and later Annie’s grand-daughter by Walter, Sadie Brice.

(Jaquelin-Furr, M (2017) Annie’s Mob: the story of the Brice/Holmes/Jacqulin Families)

All Behaviour is Communication

PROVOCATION: if educators respond in a developmentally appropriate manner to verbal and non-verbal communication children will know that they are understood without judgement.

As educators we draw on a repertoire of skills to meet children’s developmental and learning needs.

Children who are faced with a curriculum that they do not have the necessary skills to understand often communicate their feelings of frustration and inadequacy through a variety of acting out behaviours.

Drawing on our Nurture Principles we understand that all behaviour is communication.

The starting point of a vulnerable child’s formal reading instruction is lower than their more advantaged counterparts; and unfortunately poor literacy capabilities often correlate with poor life outcomes including health and wellbeing.

Put simply reading is the ability to decode text and comprehend language.

The simplest view of the relation between decoding and reading which anyone has ever seriously entertained is this: Reading equals the product of decoding and comprehension, or R = D x C… We trust it is clear that by comprehension we mean, not reading comprehension, but rather linguistic comprehension

Gough, P. B. and Tunmer W. E (1987)

When one or both of these capabilities is underdeveloped then the child presents with reading difficulties or a reading disability. Children’s reading capabilities form the basis of academic achievement, lifelong success and their social and emotional wellbeing. Within the early years of school, children are learning to read. As they begin to master this skill set they shift into reading to learn and are positioned to access the curriculum.

When supporting vulnerable children we understand that:

• many are starting from behind;
• language and communication are necessary to access the curriculum;
• language skills and self-regulation inform academic achievement;
• behaviour is a form of communication.

Both developmental language disorders and developmental trauma affect children’s literacy learning.

The idea that “behaviour is a form of communication” is simply a lens through which behaviour can be (re)conceptualised. It is a particularly important lens for young people with developmental language disorders, many of whom will not have a diagnosis as such, but will… simply appear to be “tuned out”, uncooperative, disinterested, and/or too easily-distracted by what’s going on around them. Young people with developmental language disorders will also be poor at “reading the play” in social situations, with their difficulty following social banter sometimes resulting in misunderstandings and social exclusion. Social exclusion, in turn, is painful for humans, and we sometimes behave in dysfunctional ways to overcome it.  

The other group for whom the notion of behaviour as a form of communication is helpful is children who have experienced trauma in their early lives. Maltreatment (abuse and/or neglect of various forms) provides children with an over-representation of dysfunctional interpersonal behaviour experiences and an under-representation of experiences in which adults are caring, trustworthy, helpful, and supportive. This can create conditions of hyper-vigilance to threat and expectations that adults are unreliable and unsafe to be around. Sadly, young people in the child protection system (meaning that a notification has been substantiated and their home environment lacks the basics with respect to safety and care) are 12 times more likely than others in the community to be engaged with the youth justice system. This is not the fault of affected children, but it will play out very vividly in their everyday classroom behaviour. It’s worth remembering too, that young people in the child protection and youth justice systems sit at the extreme end of a dimension of risk and vulnerability. There are many more whose language, behaviour and emotional self-regulation profiles are compromised, but not sufficiently to reach threshold for notifications and/or apprehension by police.

(Snow P. 2019)

Alongside literature rich environments and learning opportunities that are intentionally designed to develop children’s oral language, phonemic awareness and vocabulary in the first years of school, our educators deliver a synthetic phonics program. This provides systematic and explicit phonics instruction to teach children the code breaking skills required to become literate learners. Decoding supports meaning making within the reading process and explicit instruction has its place.

We also appreciate the importance of working memory in the learning process. Children’s brains can only hold onto approximately 4 chunks of new information at any one time.

If working memory is overloaded, there is a greater risk that the content being taught will not be understood by the learner, will be misinterpreted or confused, will not be effectively encoded in long-term memory, and that learning will be slowed down.

(Martin 2016 p.8)

CESE 2018

As educators we design ways that support children to consolidate new information into long-term memory. For our learners who have experienced complex trauma their working memory may be compromised. This creates barriers to remembering instructions and comprehending, resulting in ongoing learning difficulties.

Our challenge is to remove the barriers to learning by listening to the child and selecting instructional strategies that will support them in their learning.

Starting with the Child

PROVOCATION: When “children are active protagonists” in their own learning and development: the learning processes form the focus rather than the product; children experience learning in a range of contexts; and the starting point is always with the child.

Discovery Learning has been a feature of our Early Years learning program since 2015. Over the past four years we have reflected upon this playful approach to learning and adjusted our practices in response to our research of children’s learning. In the latter two years we began to explore Discovery Learning within our middle and upper primary learning communities to foster children’s active participation in the learning process.

Children’s dispositions to learning and their perceptions of how learning happens proved to be more rigid in the primary years. This was impart due to the pedagogies that had historically dominated children’s learning experiences and educators’ task design.

In order to leverage the pedagogical shift that we had achieved R-2 we needed to establish agreed pedagogical approaches, using evidence based frameworks, whole school. These supported us to reflect upon and strengthen our practice as educators. Our Inquiry Cycle provided a framework for Discovery Learning and the Involvement Scale (Respect Reflect Relate) a measurement tool to reflect on our active learning environments.

It was important that as educators we supported children’s explorations by offering developmentally appropriate experiences, a gradual release of responsibility and modelling curiosity and risk taking. One of the biggest challenges was the older child’s perception that this unstructured learning time was “free time” and therefore available to be used as a social/relaxation period rather than time for exploration and learning.

Through Discovery Learning educators intentionally plan for children’s active exploration. We design opportunities for investigation to orientate children in their thinking and learning.

In reflecting upon our practices we observe that Discovery Learning is successful when:

• educators provide provocations to prompt and stretch children’s learning.
• resources and materials are open ended
• educators engage with children
• learning opportunities foreshadow or consolidate explicit teaching
• learning opportunities stretch children in their thinking.

Provocations are supported by clear learning intentions. Learning experiences are designed to engage children within the General Capabilities of our curriculum.

Oral language, problem solving, motor skills, social and emotional skills all feature within the range of experiences offered to children. Tinker tables, book making, dramatic play, story tables, reading nooks, construction zones and maker’s space provide invitations for learning. As we become more intentional we plan our Discovery Learning based on children’s interest and then design opportunities to stretch our learners.

Upon beginning this school year our educators focussed on strengthening the intentionality of Discovery Learning. In discussions we identified that it is disheartening when a provocation into which we have invested a great deal of planning time and effort garners little interest from the children. Our challenge is to nudge children toward exploration whilst at the same time honouring their learning process.

This nudging occurs best when the educator dedicates their time to engaging with the children and prompting their thinking through questioning such as “I wonder…”, “Do you think…”, “How could…”, “What if…” and “What would you like to find out tomorrow?”.

Self Care

Provocation: if we prioritise self care as educators we nurture ourselves – thereby nurturing our learners.

Self care is a necessity in our work.

Vicarious Trauma is a reality for many educators. Our knowledge and beliefs about mental health allow us to acknowledge, recognise, manage and prevent mental illness in ourselves.

Throughout a difficult 12 month period our team of educators managed a series of complex situations involving children and families – circumstances which many an educator will go an entire career never encountering. This involved not one but multiple incidents that required a repertoire of skill and tested the resolve of some of the most experienced educators within my team.

As professionals we stay calm within the midst of emotional storms – our own and others. When we are well rested and filled with positivity we weather the storm well. At other times we absorb the negative energy as we take control of our emotions and own fight and flight responses in order to maintain a calm exterior.

When the mind thwarts the flow of emotions because they are too overwhelming or too conflicting, it puts stress on the mind and the body, creating psychological distress and symptoms. Emotional stress, like that from blocked emotions, has not only been linked to mental ills, but also to physical problems like heart disease, intestinal problems, headaches, insomnia and autoimmune disorders.

Most people are ruled by their emotions without any awareness that this is happening. But once you realize the power of emotions, simply acknowledging your own can help greatly.

2018, Hilary Jacobs Handel.

Most people are ruled by their emotions without any awareness that this is happening. But once you realize the impact of our emotions, acknowledging their existence can greatly improve your wellbeing.

The cumulative nature of our work takes it’s toll. We recharge during the holiday period, revitalising ourselves before embarking upon another term or school year.

Our work is at times difficult and challenging. At other times it depletes us of our reserves. As educators we approach this work with expertise and empathy all along maintaining a relentless focus on the learning.

It is therefore necessary to prioritise our mental, physical and emotional wellbeing. There are a myriad of strategies including exercise, mindfulness and placing clear boundaries between work and home.

Our work is steeped in emotion – ideally this would all be positive and well managed. However there are substantially more negative affects than positive ones. The challenge is to effectively manage the negative affects so that they don’t weigh us down.

A playful approach to learning can also extend to our own wellbeing and self care. Playfulness can release positive hormones – endorphins, serotonin and dopamine – which influence our mood. Being too serious can negatively impact our mental health and wellbeing. Whilst our work is serious we can absolutely have fun doing it.

The challenges of our working lives should not have a detrimental effect nor diminish our quality of life.

In order to nourish our wellbeing we need to take time out to recharge. During the summer break I prioritised family time, enjoying everything that summer brings.

This morning my four year old and I delighted in our morning tea (coffee and hot chocolate) in the shade of our gum trees before I returned for my first day at work. I am rejuvenated and ready for the year that comes and this is because I stepped away entirely. I trust my colleagues achieved the same during their break.

The challenge is to maintain this equilibrium as we immerse ourselves in our work and the school year unfolds. By prioritising self care we create space to design and facilitate rich learning experiences for our children.

The Learning Community

Provocation: The Learning Community – a belief that there is an inclusive and ethical process that means that every single child can be in a place that allows them to encounter and come in to their own way of being.

Steve Biddulph’s writing often resonates with the ideologies of our educational project. In his article The making of men: It’s all about belonging he poses the question “Who is recruiting boys into responsible, enlivened, joyful, nurturing manhood?”. He goes on to say

Terrorists, crime gangs, random killers, delinquent kids, violent partners, and dare I say it, dismal male political leaders, are all on a continuum. All lost boys… Communities have to embrace young male energy, give it a purpose, and steer it carefully and specifically, with friendship, direction and warmth, towards real contributing manhood. Or the village, and planet, will burn.

Whether it be our boys or girls we are capable of designing learning communities that engage adults from the wider community in being with and nurturing our children. By providing relationships in various forms we connect children through a sense of belonging that anchors them within a wider community.

The pioneering American psychiatrist, Dr. Karl Menninger, observes that today’s children are desperately pursuing “artificial belongings” because this need is not being fulfilled by families, schools, and neighborhoods. For many troubled children, belonging will only be found in relationships with adults who recognize, in the words of Menninger, that “living with and loving other human beings who return that love is the most strengthening and salubrious emotional experience in the world.”

Larry K. Brendtro, Martin Brokenleg & Steve Van Bockern

Creating a network of adults who nurture children creates emotionally healthy children. Emotionally healthy children are powerful learners. We create these networks of adults through volunteer programs where community members contribute by mentoring and supporting our children. Our volunteers work alongside staff within the relational aspect of our project because it takes a village and we exist in community.

Within our Learning Assistance Program children are provided with a consistent relationship, time with an adult mentor who reflects to the child that they are worthy through their unconditional positive regard for that child. Our LAP volunteers provide complimentary support for the practice of academic, social and emotional skills. They show an interest, listen, offer advice and provide a relational point of reference outside of the traditional parent/child, teacher/student.

Within a Learning Community education is everyone’s responsibility, all adults are teachers and each contributes to connecting and growing the child.

Stand Up, Speak Out

Provocation: if educators model and teach respectful relationships we provide children with the skills and ability to relate without violence.

As a White Ribbon School we develop a culture of respect and equality through curriculum, policies and strengthened family and community partnerships.

In 2015 we made a commitment to building a safer, more respectful and productive school community. We began by:

• establishing a school Behaviour Code – Learning, Respectful Relationships and Safety.
• building a culture of respectful relationships and promoting non-violence.
• providing children the opportunity to learn and experience respectful relationships.
• embedding models of respectful relationships in school culture and learning activities.
• influencing sustainable cultural change in the wider school community to prevent the perpetration of violence.

We developed a shared understanding that every child’s right to learn also includes the right to learn respectful relationships. Educators therefore acknowledge that they have the responsibility to explicitly teach, model and reinforce these skills and abilities.

Consideration is given to the high levels of domestic violence that exists and is perpetrated every day in our community. We recognise that this impacts our children and families. We are sensitive with respect to the messages regarding family violence we communicate to children through our aWhite Ribbon and Child Protection Curriculum.

Children want to talk about what respectful relationships look and feel like. They are interested in gauging the parameters of what is and isn’t acceptable within a relationship. They are capable of developing positive behaviours, social skills and relationships. 

Today we celebrated White Ribbon Day with a community breakfast. One of our children spoke as a White Ribbon advocate and we pledged the oath to stand up, speak out and act to prevent violence.

This work is not isolated to a White Ribbon event once a year. Celebrating White Ribbon simply starts a conversation. The real work is much more complex and must be enacted in an ongoing manner; through our curriculum, policies and school culture.

Nature Play

Provocation: if we give time for children to explore, play and learn outdoors we nurture their social and emotional capabilities, cognitive development, curiosity and resilience – developing powerful learners.

Learning occurs in a range of contexts.

The reciprocal process of learning occurs through relationship with each other and with the environment.

Needing Trees: The Nature of Happiness 2015

• Spending time in nature has the ability to influence a person’s happiness because it has direct effects on the brain and hormone secretion.

• Viewing nature activates areas of the brain linked with the dopamine reward system, triggering happiness- induced recall and feelings of wellness, whereas viewing urban scenes activates areas of the brain associated with anxiety, fear and unpleasantness.

• Viewing natural environments produces more alpha wave activity compared to viewing urban environments – brain activity that has been shown to be greater in creative individuals.

• Nature reduces the body’s response to stress, with cortical secretion and irregularity decreasing with the more green space a person is exposed to.

• The biophilia hypothesis states that because of our origins we are innately connected to nature, with activities that enhance our engagement with the natural world receiving neurological and biochemical positive feedback.

• Exposing children to environments that reduce stress and increase wellbeing has long-term effects on the structure of the brain and happiness later in life.

We understand that active learning environments enable greater opportunities for children to engage in learning.

Playful contexts provide opportunities for students to develop their social competence and creative and critical thinking.

Our beliefs about the importance of play in children’s development underpin shared definitions of play and playful learning which are embedded within whole site teaching and learning agreements. These guide a consistent approach to high quality practice.

The ongoing challenge is for educators to provide an appropriate balance between proactive planning for children’s play and respecting children’s autonomy to play without interference.

We encourage staff to review and challenge current practices. If we believe children are powerful and rich in potential, then we provide opportunities for structured and unstructured play within the daily program.

Free play is an unstructured child-initiated activity where the focus is on emotional and social relevance… Playing may take place indoors or outdoors, and it is not specifically related to the curriculum.”

Hyvonen, P. T. 2011

Nature Play involving sticks, loose parts, climbing trees, real tools and bare feet provide a plethora of developmental benefits. Unstructured play outdoors, whatever the weather, provides authentic learning experiences that encourage:

• body awareness

• fine and gross motor skills
• risk taking
• creativity
• problem solving
• independence
• social skills
• communication
• resilience
• self-confidence.

Paediatric occupational therapist Angela Hanscom writes in her article The Unsafe Child: Less Outdoor Play is Causing More Harm than Good:

…sometimes too much protection can cause more harm than good. We are keeping them from attaining the very sensory input they need in order to grow into resilient and able-bodied people. They need to climb, jump, run through the woods, pick up sticks, jump in mud puddles, and fall and get hurt on occasion. These are all natural and necessary experiences that will help develop a healthy sensory system–foundational to learning and accomplishing many of life’s goals.

Learning in nature provides the opportunity to influence positive wellbeing. Natural environments reduce stress, increase happiness and can have positive long term effects upon the way the brain is structured influencing the body’s response to stress.

Educators intentionally build nature play opportunities into our Nurture Groups. Recently our children were taken on what was intended as a cubby building excursion to the Leg of Mutton Lake. What occurred was much more.

We observed a child (whose significant mental heath issues have inhibited school attendance for more than two years) smiling, laughing, playing and connecting with others. We observed another (whose fundamental need for control frequently results in conflict and escalating aggression) look to others for guidance and accept support when bush walking and exploring the natural landscape.

Children collected loose parts, delighted in the early spring flowers, quietly observed a wallaby and climbed the crater edges of the remnants of the volcano. They hypothesised , inquired, explored. Older children supported younger children to step outside their comfort zones. Children took risks and set their own limits, stretching themselves as they developed confidence.

They became lost in the bush and discovered the wonder of their childhood.

These experiences are not isolated to a once off excursion, educators weave these experiences back in to the Nurture Room. In the literacy, numeracy, social, emotional and cognitive development that forms the learning program.

I wonder what they will discover when next we venture into the forest.

Culturally Responsive Pedagogies

Provocation: The rights of children are born and die every day in the thinking and institutions that we have.

This week educators reflected on evidence of children’s literacy learning and the effective strategies that have had a positive impact on children’s reading.

We then engaged in further professional learning with Professor Pauline Harris where we explored children representing their world symbolically and culturally responsive pedagogy.

A culturally responsive pedagogy nurtures children’s strengths by engaging with the learner’s culture, their family and their community. Diversity enhances learning. When as educators we are inclusive of our children’s lived experiences we create democratic spaces for learning that uphold children’s rights.

There is an inherent issue in Australia where many of our Aboriginal children are not receiving a quality education. “Leaders, principals and teachers of public schooling where the majority of our aboriginal children reside, have to protect and become advocates for public schooling and the notion of democracy” ( Lester-Irabinna Rigney, 2018).

Our children have the right to a culturally responsive educational experience that:

provides high intellectual challenge

is connected to their lives

recognises cultural difference as a positive asset

values and builds upon indigenous knowledges and practices

promotes communities of learners

draws upon socio-cultural understandings of literacy.

By using a repertoire of strategies to support the literate learner educators balance intentionality and explicitness within their teaching.

What children bring – what they know, can do and understand – needs to be acknowledged, valued and built upon. Dialogue is important for learning. Relational learning is about creating third spaces, yarning spaces where we yarn up rather than down.

Educator intentionality in both the design of provocations for learning and the engagement and nudging of children whilst immersed in the learning is deliberate, purposeful and thoughtful.

Using a strengths based framework supports educators to leverage the third spaces between home and classroom to provide opportunities for intellectual stretch.

Children who are Aboriginal don’t lack intelligence they lack opportunity; children who are poor don’t lack intelligence they lack opportunity.

Playful Learning

Provocation: doing activates thinking. An active learning environment promotes capable and competent learners who can independently inquire and discover through play.

Two years ago we inquired into playful pedagogies and the structures of schooling. We developed an understanding of the importance of play beyond the common definitions of ‘playful’, ‘imaginative’ and ‘fun’. We reflected upon our practices and formed a shared position on the purpose of play and the use of breaks to support learning and development.

The definition of play is broad. Play includes social games, pretending games, games involving playing with objects, indoor and outdoor play, pretend, authentic, traditional and free play. Playing “in nature” supports children to develop physical skills, social skills and manage risks. Play is:

• essential to a child’s holistic development and wellbeing.
• important for learning and supports cognitive, physical, social and emotional development.
• a foundation for the development of abstract and scientific reasoning.

Play is a fundamental human right for all children, regardless of age, gender, culture, social class or disability. This must be reflected in a range of play environments that offer children, who are otherwise disadvantaged, with experiences that help improve their quality of life. (2012, Gleave and Hamilton).

Extended unstructured “free play”

Research consistently documents that unstructured play has an important role in the school day, and has benefits for children’s cognitive, social, and physical health. Unstructured, free play supports children to develop social skills including team work, turn taking, sharing and conflict resolution. When children initiate their own play they can engage in decision making, problem solving and self-regulation.

Unstructured break time with the freedom to play away from intensive adult supervision is beneficial for children’s learning and development. Whilst unstructured play can be a time when social issues arise there are many positive benefits. Providing opportunity for children to play independently within a safe environment uninhibited by adults promotes creativity and social competence. There is a great value in providing undirected play opportunities; when play, social interaction and physical activity “are included, children chase one [an]other, challenge each other… make up games… all the while becoming more fit, imaginative/innovative, and socially competent” (Jarrett, 2015).

Play in natural environments is viewed as potentially more complex, imaginative, self-determined and ‘playful’, compared to play in indoor environments, notably in schools and preschools, where play is often constrained by adults’ agenda (Brooker and Woodhead 2013).

Playful Pedagogy

Through a pedagogy based in play and inquiry educators design learning to provide opportunities for children to be:

• Engaged
• Communicating and collaborating Powerful learners
• Inquiring
• Having fun
• Creating
• Directing their learning
• Problem solving
• Exploring and discovering

The questions and steps are not predetermined for the student; with the aim being for the children to work harder than the teacher.

Playful contexts are incorporated within the learning program with the intention of promoting social competence, literacy, numeracy, creative and critical thinking and cognitive development. Children are involved as participants in their learning and have a sense of agency and control in their own lives. Active learning environments enable greater opportunities for children to engage in learning. Natural breaks, incorporated as a part of the daily program, are used to engage children with social, emotional difficulties and complex/challenging behaviours.

Our inquiry resulted in:

1. clearly stated beliefs that underpin successful practice.
2. shared definitions of play and playful learning to support teaching and learning.
3. an appropriate balance between proactive planning for children’s play guiding and nudging their learning and respecting children’s autonomy to play without interference.
4. consistency, continuity of learning, improved engagement and a consistent approach to high quality practice.

Children with a sense of wellbeing and belonging are highly involved in their learning. They undertake complex and creativity thinking are persistent engage with deep learning and become powerful learners.

Opportunities for structured and unstructured play are incorporated in to the daily program alongside opportunities where children can make choices during their day.

Playful learning is collaborative, engaging, occurs within and beyond the classroom, and is joyful.

Reflecting on impact

Provocation: In order to make connections with children and be intentional in relaunching learning experiences: educators need to observe and unpack the learning children are engaged in when they immerse themselves within the educational project.

Mid way through Term 2 educators reviewed their documentation of children’s learning in order to share and reflect upon the impact of their work.

At the start of our second 4 week sprint educators identified what their next reading goal would be, how they would get there, and how they would document and share the impact of their work.

We framed our reflection by posing a series of questions to educators prior to the check in at the staff meeting:

How are you as an educator influencing learning with regard to children’s identity as readers?

• What do your chosen strategies look like?

What do you know about your learners as readers?

• Including those who are not making benchmark and those not being extended.

Has the impact of your work been successful in improving children’s reading capability?

• How do you know?

We then engaged in a process to review and reflect upon our documentation in order to interpret children’s learning.

Educators have been intentional in utilising specific strategies appropriate to their cohort including:

• prior knowledge
• teacher modelling
• co-operative groups
• re-reading – backing up to make meaning
• guided reading
• anchor charts
• skip and read on
• chunking
• building resilience in reading
• building positive dispositions to reading
• making connections
• use of short texts to practise SCORE.

The documentation reviewed by educators provided evidence of:

• increased engagement
• increased confidence
• active participation
• reading progress
• increased stamina
• increased fluency
• more detailed responses and increased complexity in children’s response to text
• increased vocabulary

A Year 2 student articulated to her teacher:

I’m re-reading to make sense of what I’m reading.

Where to next?

Educators are now dedicating time to designing and relaunching rich learning experiences into the second part of the term. Some of the foci include:

• anchor charts to support decoding
• support children to read to self
• stretch learners from short texts to comprehending extended texts.

A problem of practice which educators are grappling with is transference of good reading habits beyond the literacy classroom.

The key to our next steps is to imbed what is working, discard ineffective strategies and sharpen our focus on what we need to do next to continue to develop our children’s identity and in turn their capability as readers and learners.