Lunchtime Provision

What happens at Lunchtime?

At Damers our Year 4 children take on responsibilities to help the school run smoothly and to make playtime a fun experience for everyone.  Who better to tell you about these jobs than the children themselves?

Playground Helpers
To be a Playground Helper it takes responsibility, kindness and patience.  Once a week we go out to play with Foundation children.	You get lots of hugs and it’s just really fun to play the games that you used to play when you were in Foundation!

Sports Leaders

We have a huge team of enthusiastic and committed Sports Leaders who lead sporting play with the Year One and Two pupils. The Sports Leaders plan, create and modify a whole range of games and take great pride in their special role in our school community.

Our Sports Leaders recently carried out a survey with their link classes to find out which sporting activities our younger children wanted to take part in during their lunch break. Horse riding proved a bit tricky, but the other suggestions were listened to and acted upon.

Play at Damers

To children, playing is one of the most important aspects of life. Playing contributes to children’s health, wellbeing and happiness as well as to their ability to learn. Through play, children develop a range of social, emotional and physical skills that enhance learning in the classroom and beyond.

What are your favourite childhood play memories?

How do these compare to your children’s experiences of play?

What is play?

Play is freely chosen and personally directed by the child. Children and young people determine and control the content and intent of their play, by following their own instincts, ideas and interests, in their own way for their own reasons. It is the very freedom and child-centred nature of play that makes it such an effective and comprehensive learning process. 

Damers has developed the quality of lunchtime play to enrich children’s experiences.  We provide a wider range of materials to encourage children to play imaginatively.  Play supervisors allow children the time, space and opportunities to personally direct their own play, at their own pace, for their own reasons.

Sometimes, children will naturally create or seek out challenging situations.  This is also a good learning experience because it teaches them how to manage risk and assess their limitations.

For more information and to see the Damers First School Play Policy, click here.

 “You can do anything in your imagination, there are no limits! If you wanted to fly you can imagine that you are.”