Health & Wellbeing Fair Celebrates Year 3 Student Teachers at the University of Stirling, and introduces Le Petit Bridge to our numeracy, literacy and health and wellbeing  embodied practice.

We were delighted to welcome our Year 3 primary student teachers to their annual Health and Wellbeing (HWB) Fair, a lively showcase celebrating students’ efforts in developing HWB teaching ideas that promote justice, equity, diversity and inclusion in schools. This follows our two year HWB concept curriculum, designed through interdisciplinary learning, developing and then connecting curricular areas of literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing, as indicative of primary school practices.

We were especially pleased to have Year 4 student Michael McCormack return to share an HWB lesson he recently delivered in a local primary school.  His session offered an inspiring example of how our students’ ideas are already making an impact in classrooms through combining the teaching of Science concepts with outdoor and physically active learning.

Throughout the morning, we were joined by HWB and PE tutors from across primary and secondary education, as well as guest speaker Dr Shirley Gray from the University of Edinburgh, who contributed valuable insights online.

This year’s event was proudly supported and sponsored by SATPE and BAMSA (Bridge: A MindSport for All), whose ongoing encouragement helps make this opportunity possible. Our thanks also go to the Faculty of Health, Sport and Society administrative team for their organisation and support.

Marcus Scotney illuminated the added value playing card games in general can bring to a child’s life, and ways the game of bridge can be integrated into general practice as a means to support curricular learning. It was fascinating, exciting and very well received. This semester Marcus will be conducting workshops with our student teachers to further explore game-based learning and their views of the card game, Le Petit Bridge.

At the HWB Fair, colleagues Dr Marina Milosheva and Marcus Scotney also joined in as fair judges, through our mastery approach following module completion and ahead of school placement enactment. During the fair, students presented Maths games they had designed that linked with HWB themes, engaging judges in thoughtful conversations about how their ideas link to policy and classroom practice.

The event also marked the launch of a research enquiry that will see students take their resources into schools and reflect on their use, supported by school mentors and ITE tutors. We look forward to following up on how our student teachers use their resources in school and to hearing their suggestions on how we can continue to support them. We are delighted to progress our learning activities through physically activated bridge concepts, and welcome insights from BAMSA.