Exciting Afternoon at our P7 Play Leaders Session!

At St. Joseph’s, we encourage children to show our school values, such as resilience, co-operation and compassion at all times throughout the day. This doesn’t stop in the classroom!

One of the ways we try to encourage this is through providing our P7 pupils with the opportunity to participate in the Play Leader Scheme, through Active Schools. This allows pupils to have the opportunity to lead outdoor games and encourage positive play (with plenty of curiosity!) for children of all ages. The Play Leaders help ensure that everyone gets the opportunity to lead each game available on the playground. Activities range between ball games, co-ordination games, teamwork games, skipping, hula hoops and more.

By supporting our pupils to take on leadership, they are developing Metaskills – those skills for learning, life and work e.g. Communicating, collaborating, leading and creativity to name but a few.

Another of the aims of the scheme is that it will increase the amount of physical activity undertaken during playtime/lunchtime and support positive behaviour values. Play Leaders are also specially trained to seek out children who seem lonely or too shy to ask to join in… We all play together at St. Joseph’s

Our P1-4 pupils had a fantastic time at the P7 Play Leaders session at the Ryan Centre! They learned new games like Jelly Beans and Traffic Lights, which helped improve their agility, teamwork, and listening skills. The children also participated in relay races that challenged them to use various physical skills while encouraging friendly competition.

This engaging session linked to several Sustainable Development Goals, including Goal 3 (Good Health and Wellbeing) and Goal 4 (Quality Education), emphasising the importance of play and physical activity.