Play Is The Way
At Lara Lake Primary our key values are:
- Respect
- Responsibility
- Excellence
We want our students to be able to understand themselves and others, and develop the key skills to become happy and productive members of their community. To ensure our children are provided with the best opportunity to develop social and emotional skills, we have instituted the PLAY IS THE WAY® program.
PLAY IS THE WAY® is a philosophy of behaviour education and student self-regulation that fosters independent, self-motivated, empathetic, life-long learners.
It is a practical methodology for teaching social and emotional skills using:
- A unique program of physically interactive games (that both require and develop personal and social competencies)
- 5 guiding concepts (that are embedded through classroom activities and serve as a moral compass to help children do what they believe is right as opposed to doing what they are told).
- A specific and empowering self-reflective language (that helps children to master their behaviour in preparation for a responsible life in free society).
The five guiding concepts (Known as the 'Life Raft')
- Treat others as you would like the to treat you
- Be Brave, participate to progress
- Pursue your personal best
- It takes great strength to be sensible
- Have reasons for the things you say and do
Wilson McCaskill is the founder of the program and the author of the wonderful book ‘Children Aren’t Made of China’.
We love this quote from Wilson.
“Let us raise children to be considerate of themselves, others and the world in which they live, with sound reasons for the things they say and do... from this, all else will follow.”