1 – Intro, Key Documents and Further Reading
Inverclyde Education Services has developed a strategic approach to ensuring that our primary school children experience the developmentally-appropriate, child-centred pedagogies explored in Realising the Ambition (2020). The strategic aim of Inverclyde’s approach is ‘to change pedagogical practice to one that empowers children to become active participants in their learning.’
To achieve this, play pedagogy has been a priority in the Education Service Improvement Plan and in School Improvement Plans since 2021. A play pedagogy implementation team that included a project manager and two full-time Coaching and Modelling Officers for the first two years of the project, (now known as #PlayInverclyde), developed a plan and training programme to drive this forward.
Schools were each gifted a set of wooden blocks for P1 and a selection of play-related literature to support initial implementation. Each school was also given a ‘play budget’ in year 1 and year 2 with an accompanying suggested resource list. CMOs supported schools in ordering resources and zoning spaces to accommodate play pedagogy. Schools were also given an additional pointage of teaching staff to allow P1 and P2 staff to attend CLPL sessions.
#PlayInverclyde benefited greatly from the involvement of Lynda Keith who delivered online training sessions to all P1 teachers in year 1, and a series of full day sessions to all new P1 teachers and all P2 teachers in year 2, supported by Coaching and Modelling Officers.
Working in partnership with Allan Fleming of Education Scotland allowed CMOs to support delivery of training on key topics such as child-development, high-quality observations, assuring quality and documentation of learning.
Our work with West Partnership has led to the development of a set of Principles for Play and Enquiry Learning, and a training package for use across the region (coming soon).
A vast range of training materials, including tools, videos, and presentations, have been created by CMOs and are shared on the PASE pages to support practitioners and leaders on their journey to embedding play pedagogy.
‘Stand aside for a while and leave room for learning, observe carefully what children do, and then, if you have understood well, perhaps teaching will be different from before.’
Loris Malaguzzi
KEY DOCUMENTS & FURTHER READING
| Descriptor | Link to Resource |
| Realising the Ambition: Being Me 2020 | Realising the Ambition 2020 |
| The Power of Play for Children and Young Peoples Mental Health 2020 | Play-Scotland-Mental-Health-Paper.pdf |
| The Scottish Government’s Play Strategy for Scotland 2013 | Play Strategy for Scotland.pdf |
| CfE Through Outdoor Learning 2010 | cfe-through-outdoor-learning.pdf |
| Developing Global Citizens Through Play- an Early Level Resource | Developing Global Citizens Through Play – Seeds of Change.pdf |
| A Pedagogy of Play- Project Zero Book | Pedagogy of Play Book 2023.pdf |
| White Paper- The Science Behind the Art of Engaging Young Children 2019 Lego Foundation | art-of-engaging-young-children.pdf |
| Recommended texts from the #PlayInverclyde Implementation Group 2021 | Texts suggested by the Play Pedagogy Implementation Group.pdf |
| Links to all resources | PlayInverclyde Resource Links.docx |
| Collection of play pedagogy resources | #PlayInverclyde (padlet.com) |
