One of my favourite activities during the week as principal of our Fleetwood Campus is finding time to go out during recess and see what students are up to. Whether it be mining a quarry, weed whacking, building forts, chalk art, climbing the space net, gaga ball, soccer, blue playground, nine square, volleyball or searching for the best rocks in the forest – there is some pretty epic play that goes on here at Surrey Christian School!

As part of our mission here at SCS of Educating for Wholeness, it’s vital that we create space for both work and play. According to a professional association of 67,000 pediatricians, “the lifelong success of children is based on their ability to be creative and to apply the lessons learned from playing.” (Sahlberg & Doyle, 2023). When we move into our new building at Fleetwood Campus in the coming weeks you will notice touches of ‘play’ influencing the design of the space. There are reading nooks, play spaces, and even an indoor slide for our students to enjoy and engage with. We are so fortunate and blessed at the success of the Places & Spaces campaign making this new space a reality. Thank you to everyone who has faithfully donated throughout the campaign.

Play also goes far beyond our facilities. We encourage our staff to be playful in their lesson designing seeking opportunities to deepen learning experiences to engage with the world around them. Work and play aren’t mutually exclusive entities at Surrey Christian. Our hope is even in the hardest calculus or physics lessons that joy can be found.

One of my favourite educational leaders the late Sir Ken Robinson describes the concept of finding your element at school – the place where your skills and passion meet. I would suggest this can’t be done without having permission to work, play, fail and then try again. Ultimately as Fred Rodgers once said ‘Play is serious learning’ and we need to consider what God is forming in every child as they explore the forest in search of that perfect rock.