Reading and writing are fundamental skills that we learn as children and carry through every stage of life. Passion for, and understanding of, language helps us learn how to articulate our feelings, and opens doors to imaginary and real worlds alike. For many children, learning to read can be a difficult process filled with apprehension and frustration; however, it doesn’t have to be a challenge. Daniel Senn, CEO and Founder of Poio (www.poio.co.uk), the newly-launched reading app that provides a compelling, gamified alternative to traditional learning methods, believes that education through play is the best way to encourage children to embrace, and enjoy, learning. Below, he shares the top five benefits of educating via play.

It helps your child practice critical thinking

Reading and playing engage the part of the brain that is responsible for attention, memory, control, and critical thinking. When you pair the two together by gamifying the reading process, your child learns to contextualise what they read and apply it to their immediate environment. This in turn helps your child learn to identify important information more efficiently, helping to ultimately challenge and develop their growing brain.

Interactive reading helps to develop social skills

As children start attending school, making friends can be intimidating for both shy and outgoing kids alike. Reading and playing can help your child feel more confident in their abilities, and many games will encourage them to practice their social skills. Often, stories aimed at children will feature characters facing challenges and experiencing a range of emotions. This can give your child the opportunity to imagine themselves in similar situations and develop traits such as empathy and consideration. By discussing these scenarios with your child you, as the parent, are able to teach them about different emotions and how to  relate to others, helping them understand the emotional responses and social skills they will need throughout their life.

Reading and play boosts creativity

Reading itself can be a creative outlet, but your child might not see this until they become confident readers themselves. By incorporating play into this process, you are allowing your child’s creativity to blossom – that’s how we created Poio the troll and the other characters in our game! My son came up with characters who he could help and relate to, while imagining himself into the story at the same time – making the entire learning process a lot more fun. In addition, using Poio as an example, we see children who have been hunting for letters and words in the game, starting to bring the same action into real life, trying to spell out the names of objects around them.

They learn to communicate

A recent study from the New York University School of Medicine found that reading aloud and pretend-play can offset disruptive behaviours, while improving children’s attention and focus. Any form of play, whether experienced independently, in groups, or guided, like Poio, encourages children to communicate, listen, and articulate thought. By learning to read through play, your child will speak the words they’ve learnt aloud, while voicing challenges they experience. Practicing communication while reading helps children expand their vocabulary and better convey their thoughts and opinions, helping them to better understand the world around them.

Children stay motivated

Children have endless energy that can sometimes be disruptive, especially when trying to learn a relatively quiet skill like reading. By encouraging your child to engage with characters and play out scenarios, you help them channel their energy into the task at hand, without becoming distracted.

When children feel they are being forced into learning or studying, it becomes compulsory and dull. However, gamifying the task can make them feel like choosing to learn and that it is their decision. This shifts your child’s thinking from ‘this is something I have to do’ to ‘this something fun that I want to do’. Not only does this shift make learning easier and more exciting for your child, but it also makes them feel empowered. By having the ability to choose an activity on their own, your child will automatically feel confident and determined to persevere through challenges, rather than forced or defeated.

The NBB Group was established in 1994 by owner Martyn Bright. Starting as a business specialising in cigarette litter disposal products, the company, with its innovative products and unique lifetime guarantee offering, saw record growth with the introduction of the smoking ban in 2007. This enabled Martyn to expand the organisation to offer a larger range of products and services. The NBB Group now has several websites, one of which is NBB Floor Matting, an online provider of interior and exterior matting suitable for a wide range of applications. The organisation is committed to ensuring the NBB product portfolio is continuously growing to meet the needs of its customers and welcomes ideas from its employees, that also feedback customer requests.

An example of this is the latest addition to the NBB Matting portfolio—Ringmat Honeycomb Mats. This introduction followed a request from a local nature reserve looking to install a safe and slip free surface to its outdoor play area.

Honeycomb matting is widely used for play areas due to its durability, anti-slip surface and long lifespan. It allows for grass to grow through the matting which keeps the naturistic look and feel, whilst offering the additional safety that is expected in areas that encourage children to play.

Acting immediately, NBB’s team of experienced buyers contacted their existing supplier network to source high-quality honeycomb matting products. After the company’s own quality assessment and research to ensure longevity and conformance to slip resistance standards. The Ringmat Honeycomb Mat was chosen and was live to purchase on the NBB Floor Matting website within just a few weeks. This matting has already shown popularity with outdoor venues and businesses who are installing the matting in play areas and outside building entrances.

Martyn Bright, owner of NBB, tells us: “Our business remains successful as we constantly evolve to meet demands of our customers. I have an excellent team of employees who have a clear passion and pride in the business. All customer suggestions are fed back to me directly for further investigation. Our customers know that if they can’t find what they are looking for, to tell us, as we can often find them a product that meet their requirements and suits their budget.”

To view the extensive range of matting solutions from NBB, visit www.nbbmatting.co.uk. If for any reason you are unable to find the specific matting you require, call the NBB team on 0800 1777 052 and they will endeavour to assist you. 

A great British summer can be somewhat unpredictable when it comes to the weather. One day we are being bombarded with rain, whilst the next could see us basking in record breaking temperatures. With UK temperatures set to rise in the coming days and Europe in the grips of a heat wave, it is essential to ensure that your school’s stocks of ice packs and vomit bags are topped up, ready for active children who haven’t recognised the early signs of heat exhaustion.

Eureka! Direct has been specialising in providing schools with essential first aid supplies for nearly 20 years. Included within its extensive portfolio, the organisation offers a wide range of children’s instant ice packs and vomit bags specifically designed for safe and hygienic containment and disposal of vomit should a child be sick.

Hot and cold therapy from a brand you can trust

Undoubtedly one of the most popular brands of children’s ice packs is KoolPak. Considered the UK’s leading manufacturer of instant ice packs, the quality of KookPak products and their adherence to ISO quality standards and requirements of the European Directive on Medical Devices, makes them ideal for use in schools. Eureka! Direct stocks a range of sizes and designs suitable for children of all ages.

Easy and safe to use vomit bags

CareBag vomit bags, also available through Eureka! Direct, are supplied with an absorbent core which eliminates the risk of any splashing and leaking of liquid. The bags are easy to hold by children and will rapidly turn up to 450ml of bodily fluid into an easy to dispose of gel. A simple drawstring closure minimises the risk of staff contact with vomit and the design of the bag reduces nasty odours.

As well as offering high quality first aid supplies, Eureka! Direct also offers schools free next working day delivery to UK mainland addresses on orders placed before 4.30pm, and 30 days instant credit—enabling the acquisition of supplies with only a purchase order number. 

To find out more and place your order of essential summer supplies, visit www.eurekadirect.co.uk or call 0800 358 0085.

There are clear links between physical activity and performance at school. But how do we inspire pupils to exercise more? As part of an equal health research project being run by Malmö University, Semcon has developed a mobile app that can get pupils to do their homework while also exercising outdoors.

“Our idea was to use a fun game to transform homework – which is often done while sitting still – into something pupils do while moving around. It gets people into healthy habits while also improving school results. Involving users in the entire process has allowed us to create an innovative concept,” says Mehdi Khayyami, User Experience Specialist at Semcon.

A prototype of the homework game has been tested by pupils and teachers in Lindängen, near Malmö, but also in other locations as part of the Hälsofrämjande innovation i samverkan project [Cooperation on innovation to promote health], which has now come to an end. Hopefully the game will be completed and go live as soon as possible.

“It has met with a really great response. We have been able to show the potential of smart technology when it comes to really making a difference. I hope somebody will pick this up and bring it all the way to market so that everyone can benefit from the game,” says Anna Funke, Team Manager Software & Architecture at Semcon.

Customised and inspiring

There are many opportunities offered by this homework game. Teachers can easily create customised and inspiring tests and monitor the development of every pupil. It also saves time on corrections. Pupils can learn vocabulary or mathematical equations while spending time outdoors. Step counters, GPS positioning and Augmented Reality (AR) also allow homework questions to be presented in a way that encourages play while the homework is being done – and pupils can work alone or with friends.

“As I see it, there are some major benefits to be had from this type of game, which combines repetitive tasks with movement. Children nowadays do not take enough exercise, and a game of this kind could help promote their health and improve their ability to concentrate. It gets pupils interested, and they learn more when they are playing a game that they enjoy,” says Maria Simbotin, teacher at Lindängenskolan in Malmö, where a prototype of the game has been tested by year three and four pupils.

About the Hälsofrämjande innovation i samverkan project

The gap between people enjoying good health and people with poor health in society is widening. This was why the Hälsofrämjande innovation i samverkan project was launched. Its aim is to help improve the health of citizens in the district of Lindängen in Malmö. An innovation platform has been built using the Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) model, which is based entirely on users themselves. People in Lindängen have played a part in all decisions so as to ensure that not only products and services are developed, but also their own empowerment, leading to greater integration.

This research project is being funded by Vinnova and is a partnership of fourteen different stakeholders in the ideas-based sector, the public sector, the business community and academia. The project began in 2016 and ended in May 2019. Hopefully a continuation project will be able to commence in the autumn.
Find out more about the project.

Chessington World of Adventures in Greater London has chosen to equip its outdoor spaces with eco-friendly furniture made from 100% recycled plastic.

The Merlin Group theme park is constantly striving to reduce its global impact on the environment and as such looked at a more sustainable range of picnic benches for its guests. After researching options, the company decided upon NBB Recycled Furniture, a UK organisation that designs and manufactures stunning outdoor furniture made from 100% recycled high-density polyethylene.

Jamie Chestnutt, Sustainability Manager at Chessington states: “We looked at various options for our outdoor furniture and made the decision to go with NBB. The furniture they produce exactly matched our criteria of being attractive, hard-wearing, safe and environmentally friendly.

“It is our aim to ensure that all guests that visit our theme park feel comfortable, so we have purchased a variety of picnic benches to accommodate the diverse range of guests we have, including larger groups and wheelchair users. It is really pleasing to have found a supplier that can produce the furniture we require so our guests feel welcome as well as helping us to achieve our environmental goals.”

Having saved over 92,000 plastic milk bottles from entering landfill sites so far with its choice of outdoor furniture, the park is now working with NBB to replace its existing bins with 100% recycled plastic options.

To find out more about the range of outdoor furniture and accessories from NBB, visit www.recycledfurniture.co.uk, or call their friendly team on 0800 1777 052.