Snakes & Ladders
To ensure that our work with children and young people is creative, interesting and fun, Barnardo's, in partnership with young people, developed an interactive resource based upon the old game of ‘Snakes & Ladders’.
The Barnardo's approach uses the game in a giant version with a 10ft x 10ft board and large inflatable dice. The game can be used in various ways with children/young people at all stages of education from the early years through to secondary and beyond.
Barnardo's promotes the use of our snakes & ladders approach to engage children and young people in learning within the school setting, taking into account education curriculums throughout the UK.
Due to its flexibility, Snakes & Ladders can be used to promote learning within the curriculum in Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Example Topics
- Emotional well-being and mental health – bullying, choice making
- Personal safety
- Healthy eating
- Drug/alcohol awareness
- Independent living
- Awareness of others – citizenship
Other uses within schools
- Support school councils to represent the views of children/young people
- Support the development of individual support plans for children/young people
- Evaluate the impact of lessons
Storytelling
The pack can be used as visual feature for storytelling around issue based topics for example bullying, homelessness etc. The snakes are set out as the negative experiences while the children/young people are encouraged to think about what they could do/who they could go to, to overcome the snakes – these are the ladders on the board. A resource sheet detailing the use of Snakes & Ladders within storytelling is available with the pack.
Emotional Literacy
A key feature of the Snakes & Ladders work is to create opportunities for children and young people to talk about the key issues/experiences that impact on their lives and the feeling associated with the issues/experiences. Using the pack provides children/young people with an opportunity to think about the ‘Snakes & Ladders’ in their lives and enables them to think about how snakes could be overcome.
Goal Setting
The 100th square on the board is used to help children and young people think about their goals, hopes etc and what they/other people can do to help them achieve them (ladders) and what might stop them getting to their ‘100’ (snakes). This approach is benefical for developing individual support plans and ensuring that children/young people are involved in their development.
Structured play in the early years
The giant board and dice can be used to promote number recognition, sharing, and understanding of feelings amongst younger children whilst playing a game of Snakes & Ladders.
Awareness raising/Peer Education
The board can be set up with real life experiences (issue cards) placed on the head of the snakes and bottom of the ladders. These issue cards can be developed around any topic that the class are currently working on e.g. healthy eating, road safety, drug/alcohol awareness, independent living. Children and young people can play the game in pairs and discuss the issues when they land on the relevant squares. This version can also be played with money e.g. surviving on benefits, low incomes etc. A resource pack on this approach is available with the pack.
These are only a few examples of how the pack can be used within the classroom setting. If you would like to discuss this further please get in touch on 0141 222 4700.
