Sporting colourful socks our Junior School students enjoyed a morning of unstructured play, as part of Global Play Day in Week 1. The delayed start to the school year did not stop the College taking part in the event, which is typically enjoyed in the first week of February.
Somerset has supported the growing initiative over the past few years with evidence showing children acquire social skills when playing and how to plan and organise. Research suggests that one of the predictors of academic performance in the eighth grade is a child’s social skills in the third grade. Furthermore, countries that allocated more time at recess also tended to have higher academic performance (Pellis, 2011).
Students from Pre-Prep to Year 6 roamed the Junior School enjoying activities from flying paper planes, jumping rope, dancing in the music room, handball, football, digging in the sandpit and playing on the playground.
If you are interested in finding out more about the emerging research on the importance of play and in particular, the decline of play and the rise of mental disorders please follow the link to this very informative video.
The decline of play and the rise of mental disorders.
Pellis, S., Pellis, V., and Bell, H. ( 2011). The Function of Play in the Development of the Social Brain
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