Dannevirke South Te Kakano Junior School promotes play-based learning

The challenge was to propel the ball into the bucket for points but the bucket kept falling over.

It has been three years in its development and now Dannevirke South School's Te Kakano Junior School is spending the mornings in play based learning.

Part of the motivation to change from traditional methods was the desire to ease the transition from early childhood to primary school and the results are already showing in smoother entry into school, reduced anxiety for children starting school, better attendance, and increased engagement in learning.

Teachers worked together to research and develop a programme that worked best for the children at South School.

They used theories such as Piaget's Theory of Cognitive Development, attended courses with Longworth Education and observed in schools that were also developing play-based learning.

Teachers collaboratively plan weekly themes and 'provocations' based on the interests and urges of the children from the week before.

A range of activities are set up to promote play but the children are free to change them according to their wishes.

"They hardly ever turn out as planned," says team leader Jenna Hutchings. "And that is perfectly okay so long as children are learning and having fun."

There is hardly any reluctance to participate because the children choose what they want to do.

Activities are all designed to promote reading, writing and maths with children recording their results and writing about their experiences. Each child has their own record book called My Learning Journey which becomes the communication device to the parents. Feedback has shown parents gain more knowledge from this than the traditional term report.

Playing is also about social interaction and developing the key competencies from the New Zealand Curriculum.

Children learn important skills such as negotiating, turn taking, sharing, joining in and encouraging others. The teachers within the team enter the child's play, planning their next steps in the moment. They interact and support the play, adding ideas, encouraging problem solving and asking questions to further develop children's understanding.

Play is both indoors and outdoors, fruit time is flexible as children have breakfast at different times but there are set times for reading, writing and maths throughout the day.

The programme has been running in its current form for about six months. Parents are welcome in the classroom with the school having an open door policy. They also run Stay and Play mornings for whānau to see what is going on one day per week.

South School is inviting parents, family and the public to a whānau evening on Tuesday, September 15 at 6pm to see what the programme is about.