Yesterday I cried after seeing the heart-breaking pictures of children sitting alone playing in 2 metre squares in a French playground. Although those nursery teachers were probably trying to do the right thing and protect their children, this type of re integration back into school, would do more harm than good and seriously impact the mental wellbeing of our children.
I like you are, am trying to get my head around what it means with regards to this new educational landscape, the state of play and how we are going to create happy, engaging lunchtimes and playtimes.
Last week I came across the term liminal space whilst on a Headteacher Masterclass with Integrity Coaching. (I highly recommend the programme and am an associate coach with Integrity Coaching).
Have you heard of liminal spaces? It’s a very relevant term right now with so much change happening in our Covid19 pandemic – lockdown and the recent announcements of us returning to school. A liminal space is often talked about as a threshold, and indeed, the etymology of liminal comes from the Latin root word “limen,” which means threshold.
Liminality is a time between two periods. Adolescence can be defined as a space of liminality where you are no longer a child and not yet an adult. It is an in between place and often feels extremely uncomfortable.
However, a liminal space is about transformation and we need to be in this, often, messy, ugly, vulnerable space for transformation to happen.
I often use a butterfly metaphor when I’m coaching clients.
“In the change from being a caterpillar to being a butterfly, you’re nothing more than a yellow, gooey sticky mess.”
We need to deal with the gooey glop that most people find uncomfortable. But one has to metamorphose in order to change and that will involve going through the discomfort of not being a caterpillar while one is in the process of becoming a butterfly – a liminal state.
The transformation process can be uncomfortable though without it we wouldn’t have a beautiful butterfly.
I want you to know it’s ok to feel vulnerable, messy, anxious, sad, wobbly or joyful right now.
However, we must take back our agency. We won’t have Ofsted knocking on our doors, so let’s lead our schools being true to our values, whilst keeping everyone safe.
I want us to be thinking about what’s possible and how important play is to children’s social, emotional, and mental health.
Over the coming weeks I’m going to be showing you games you can play at a social distance and as a group.
This week I’m sharing the Bean Game. This game can be played in the classroom, while lining up in the lunch hall, in the playground and almost anywhere!
Download this week’s Game of the Week The Bean Game.
