Description

Play Matters - A Walker Learning Overview

What you will learn from this session:

Play Matters provides primary teachers and leaders with a comprehensive introduction to the Walker Learning pedagogy. This session offers foundational insights and evidence on the value of play in early primary education and explores how a play-based pedagogy optimises children’s learning experiences.

This session can be completed alongside other sessions in our Walker Learning Certification pathway or as a stand-alone session ensuring you’re ready to make your own learning spaces places of belonging, exploration, and meaningful engagement for all students.

By attending Play Matters - A Walker Learning Overview you will:

• Gain insights into the research and philosophy behind Walker Learning, understanding how it combines play with explicit teaching and inquiry to foster holistic development.
• Receive an introduction to how to create inspiring learning environments that support literacy, numeracy, and social-emotional growth, promoting active engagement and hands-on learning.
• Explore the structure and flow of an Investigation session, including strategies to link literacy and numeracy authentically into children’s play and inquiries.
• Build skills for fostering a positive learning culture, recognising the importance of relationships as the foundation for children’s social skills and emotional wellbeing.
• Develop practical skills for implementing Walker Learning, including ways to tailor the pedagogy to fit your classroom, team, or school context.
• Gain an introductory understanding of Walker Learning documentation, discovering how tools like planning templates and record sheets streamline planning, observations, assessment, and reporting.
• Understand how Walker Learning’s flexible approach respects cultural diversity and adapts to various demographic, economic, and social contexts, ensuring inclusive and developmentally appropriate learning.
• Participate in a Q&A session with experienced Walker Learning consultants, providing an opportunity to deepen your understanding and ask specific questions.

This overview session is ideal for primary educators who are new to Walker Learning or in the early stages of their journey. It provides a foundational knowledge needed to implement this effective, evidence-based play pedagogy in F/K/P/R to Year 2 classrooms.

Australian Professional Teaching Standards: APTS –1.1, 1.2, 2.1, 2.5, 3.4 6.2, 6.3