{"id":122,"date":"2026-05-20T10:20:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T09:20:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/sh\/whalsayearlyyears2025\/?p=122"},"modified":"2026-05-20T10:20:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T09:20:40","slug":"nursery-gladiators-19th-of-may-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.glowscotland.org.uk\/sh\/whalsayearlyyears2025\/2026\/05\/20\/nursery-gladiators-19th-of-may-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Nursery Gladiators: 19th of May 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

What an incredible fun we had yesterday. Our much-anticipated “Nursery Gladiators” obstacle course came to life! It was a fantastic collaboration between child-led inspiration and supportive adult planning.<\/p>\n

The idea was sparked when one of our pupils shared: “I have an idea, why don’t we do, nursery gladiators?”.<\/p>\n

This pupil stepped up as our course designer! Realising the Ambition reminds us that some of the most effective learning is a co-operative process between children and adults, where the lead passes back and forth. By taking the pupil’s initial spark and using our adult input to help them plan, build, and extend the ideas, we created a rich learning experience that supports everyone to grow emotionally, socially, physically and cognitively.<\/p>\n

Warm-Up<\/strong><\/p>\n

Before tackling the main event, the children joined in with a great warm up, which was inspired and designed by one of our pupils.<\/p>\n

They split into two teams to practice throwing and catching balls of different shapes and sizes – a brilliant way to develop hand-eye coordination. This was followed by a highly energetic game of ‘Traffic Lights’. Not only was this incredibly fun, but running forwards and backwards and stopping quickly on the ‘red light’ is actually a key developmental milestone for agility and spatial awareness!<\/p>\n

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Gladiators in Action<\/strong><\/p>\n

Then it was time for the main event. It was great to see the children navigate the physically challenges we had mapped out, practicing a variety of gross motor skills:<\/p>\n