Are you helping your child to enjoy the snakes and ladders of outrageous fortune?

We all have the potential to be gamechangers.  In this article by Headteacher, Mrs Raffray, first featured recently in ‘Primary Times’, a way in which all parents can be gamechangers in the lives and education of their children is examined.  And all through play…

‘Did you spend the holiday playing board or card games with your children? Do you roar or laugh when you slide down that last snake? Educational research has now proved that old pastimes bring lifelong benefits, cognitive, social and mathematical.

Every time we play Snakes and Ladders, we engage in what educators call guided play. As parents we just can’t help ourselves from giving “feedback” whether on counting or how to respond to the vagaries of fortune.

Through play, we help our children understand the ordered associations of numbers and this has been shown in many studies to develop symbolic number concepts, a step crucial in mathematical development in the Early Years.

Moreover, when we play we shape attitudes to reversals and competition – another foundation for successful learning.

Every year, we meet parents who are anxious about Maths and how it is taught – it is different now and that is a good thing. There is too much anxiety in our society. More than ever we should be gamechanging parents in every sense of the word – let your children see you learn a new game.’