Loose parts play at Five Dock Public School
Objective
Promote greater inclusion between support unit and mainstream students by expanding the school’s loose parts play program.
Measure of success
Improved student learning and wellbeing.
All measures
Student interactions, participation, and physical activity
Engagement and wellbeing
Attendance
Behaviour
Learning
Partners
Partner school: Five Dock Public School
Overview
This Disability Strategy initiative involves children engaging in play with movable materials that can be constructed and reconstructed with no set scenario or instruction.
The school’s program has been expanded to three days a week to engage students in support unit and mainstream classes across the school in open-ended play. The program started in late 2019 in response to observations of a lack of meaningful play, and often sedentary and self-excluding behaviour, in students from the support unit. The program was extended to students in mainstream classes to help address observed difficulties in playground interactions and engaging in unstructured play. A sample group of students is being observed over time to measure impact.