Today I went into the playground at one of the schools I visit regularly and was greeted by a group of year 3 pupils, who I don't know, demanding that I follow them to see their 'settlement'. When the group of around 20 pupils parted I saw the most amazing village, created from the few loose items they had scavenged from their flat and featureless landscape...
They have even found some labels which they have used to name the different areas including the circus and the church.
3 year groups, upto 20 children at a time were working together, communicating their ideas and sorting out any difficulties to create an amazing fantasy land.
Several staff are now keen to enourage the creativity and we've discussed other loose materials that we could import from the vast parkland that ajoins the school.
I can't wait until I visit again to see how the settlement, and its creators have developed...
