This year’s Practical Pre-School Awards took place last week. The awards – hosted by Headteacher Update's sister titles Practical Pre-School and Primary Teacher Update – have a strong reputation for recognising the best in educational resources, toys, equipment, books, multimedia and many other products aimed at pre-school, childcare and key stages 1 and 2.
The categories for awards cover a range of specialist areas which are all detailed below. Again, this year the judges were impressed by the wide range of products that were entered. The entries highlight and emphasise the sheer range of imagination, creativity, expertise and devotion that have gone into producing new products.
All of the products have been rigorously tested and marked by professionals in settings to attain their final score and their final award – possibly a Gold, a Silver, a Bronze or even Overall Category Winner.
The Overall Category Winners are all listed below. You can also access the Digital Edition of this year's Awards Guide – which contains full details about all of the successful products in this year's awards.
Teaching Resources, Equipment and Tools
- Overall Winner: Walltastic Disney Collage
- Distributor: Walltastic Ltd.
- Manufacturer: Walltastic Ltd.
- Tel 020 8569 2001
- Web: www.walltastic.com
- Price: £49.99
- Age range: 0-5 years
- Description: Walltastic, the next generation of designer collages for children. Each set has 64 amazing, wow-factor pieces with all your favourite Disney Characters. Mix and match the way you want. Use in 1 room, 2 rooms, on the ceilings, wall, doors and in picture frames, etc. Let the fun begin!
Toys and Games 0-3
- Overall Winner: Jungle Bowling
- Manufacturer: Tolo Toys Ltd.
- Tel: 01978 280 076
- Web: www.firstcelticlearning.eu
- Price: £27.99
- Age range: 12 months-plus
- Description: A fantastic set of 6 jungle-themed pins with a ball. Stand them up and knock them over! Pins fit inside one another for easy transportation and to help prevent loss. Brightly coloured with funny animal characters. Designed to help enhance hand-eye co-ordination and manipulation skills. Encourages an understanding of puzzle solving and colour recognition.
Toys and Games 3-5
- Overall Winner: Dyson Ball Toy Vacuum Cleaner
- Supplier: Casdon PLC
- Tel: 01235 766 411
- Web: www.casdon.co.uk
- Price: £20.00
- Age range: Three years plus
- Description: Little ones adore role play and pretending that they are doing jobs around the house – just like the grown-ups! The Dyson Ball upright vacuum cleaner has been specially designed to be true to life, right down to the last detail so your little helper will really feel part of your world while developing essential life skills.
Childcare
- Overall: Winner Watch Me 1
- Distributor/Manufacturer: Hauck Fun For Kids Ltd
- Te:l 01978 664 362
- Web: www.hauckuk.com
- Price: £12.99
- Age range: From birth
- Description: A ‘Must Have’ safety mirror which is designed for the back seat. Has a very large sight field enabling you to keep an eye on baby/toddler at all times when travelling, without having to turn around. A safer way to ensure baby is safe as you can see them clearly when travelling.
Music and Multimedia
- Overall Winner: Chase the Rhythm
- Distributor/Publisher: Kimbles Music & Movement
- Tel: 01283 219 330
- Web: www.kimblesfun.com
- Price: £12.00
- Age range: 4-7 years
- Description: Songs to motivate children to move, developing both the body and brain. Dance like a chicken, catch the flavour of ice cream, enjoy splashing in the puddles, be a rock and roll star, move with the groove to the disco with dough. Chase the Rhythm makes learning fun!
Electric and New Technology
- Overall Winner: Lingua Talk Nursery Pack
- Publisher: Mantra Lingua Ltd.
- Tel: 020 8445 5123
- Web: www.mantralingua.com
- Price: £300+VAT
- Age range: 3-5 years
- Description: LINGUATALK NURSERY is a multi-modal, multi-media collection of resources enabling learning through speaking and listening, using the award-winning PENpal – interactive talking big books, flashcards, charts, recordable labels and software to create own audio resources provide teachers with endless opportunities to enhance and accelerate pupils’ learning.
Books and Publications
- Overall Winner: Tiberius goes to London
- Publisher: Tiberius Publishing Ltd.
- Web www.tiberiuspublishing.com
- Price: £5.99
- Age range: 3-6 years
- Description: When Tiberius and his friends go on an exciting day out, they land themselves in all sorts of trouble! You can follow their adventure using the special map of London included in the story.
Classic Toys and Games
- Overall Winner: Dinosaur Train Set
- Supplier: Bigjigs Toys Ltd.
- Tel: 01303 212 691
- Web: www.bigjigstoys.co.uk
- Price: £44.99
- Age range: 3 years-plus
- Description: A fantasy Dino Range railway set in which classic wooden trains meet a colourful prehistoric landscape. Among the 49 play pieces is an assortment of dinosaur figures, a volcano tunnel and dinosaur train. This is a toy with story-telling potential of epic proportions!
Creative Play
- Overall Winner: Plasticine Softeez
- Supplier/Manufacturer: Flair PLC
- Tel: 020 8643 0320
- Web: www.flairplc.co.uk
- Price: £4.99-£9.99
- Age range 3 years-plus
- Description: Plasticine is the fun and easy to use modelling material. It doesn’t shrink or harden and can be used again and again and it never dries out. For over 100 years, Plasticine has been stimulating our children’s imaginations and the fun continues. Plasticine Softeez is softer than traditional Plasticine, has increased malleability, is mess-free and doesn’t dry out. Perfect for little hands.
Outdoor Toys and Equipment
- Overall Winner: Kärcher for Kids High Pressure Cleaner
- Distributor: Trends UK
- Tel: 01295 768 078
- Web: www.trendstoys.co.uk
- Price: £14.99
- Age range: 3 years-plus
- Description: Based on Kärcher, the world’s leading manufacturer of high-quality, high-performance cleaning equipment the new Kärcher for Kids High Pressure Cleaner looks like a real adult version, but is smaller and perfect for kids to role-play cleaning up their bikes, toys and outside patio with water from the garden tap or hose. The Kärcher for Kids high Pressure Cleaner requires no batteries and has two interchangeable water sprayers creating a high-pressure effect so that kids can release the water jets by pressing the trigger on the handle to wash, just like the grown-ups do.
Days Out and Attractions
- Overall Winner: LEGOLAND
- Distributor: LEGOLAND Windsor Resort
- Tel: 01753 626 337
- Web: www.legoland.co.uk
- Price: Children over 3 from £32.85, adults from £36.00
- Age range: 2-12 years
- Description: The LEGOLAND Windsor Resort is the ultimate day out for families with children aged 2-12, with over 55 rides and attractions, all set in 150 acres of beautiful parkland. A dedicated Education team hosts workshops, based on the National Curriculum for KS1–KS4, utilising the world’s finest educational play material – LEGO bricks! Teachers are encouraged to utilise pre-planning resources with the emphasis on learning back in the classroom, as well as throughout the resort itself. Families and groups can use our online resources and Explorer Packs to enjoy a visit with an educational twist. There’s a whole LEGO world of playful fun and learning to discover.
PTU Toys and Games
- Overall Winner: BANANAGRAMS WildTiles
- Manufacturer: Bananagrams Inc
- Web: www.winningmoves.co.uk
- Price: £14.99
- Age range: 7 years-plus
- Description: A brand new version of BANANAGRAMS – BANANAGRAMS WildTiles! The game includes six unique monkey WildTiles, putting an all new spin on the original anagram game that drives players bananas! Now, with BANANANAGRAMS Wild Tiles, players can pick up a WildTile and play it as any letter, as they race to complete their grids. If they change their mind as the game progresses, just like every other tile in play, they can move their WildTile around as they rework their grid and it can become any letter they wish!
PTU Books and Publications
- Overall Winner: Phonics Touch & Spell
- Publisher: Letterland
- Tel: 01223 262 675
- Web: www.letterland.com
- Price: £7.99
- Age range: 5-7 years
- Description: Contains textured letters to touch and trace, stories to read aloud and vibrant illustrations. Features 40 spelling patterns with plenty of things to find containing the target sound. The child-friendly story logic appeals to children’s minds, making the phonic facts easy to remember.
PTU Creative Play
- Overall Winner: Wild Science Range
- Supplier/Manufacturer: Flair PLC
- Tel: 020 8643 0320
- Web: www.flairplc.co.uk
- Price: £12.99
- Age range 8 years-plus
- Description: The Wild Science range allows boys and girls to learn scientific ideas while having creative fun. Each kit contains everything needed to carry out each experiment. With something for everyone, from girly girls to those with a more gross preference, Wild Science brings plenty to the table.
PTU All other Resources
- Overall Winner: MEDPAC
- Supplier: Ingenious Products Ltd.
- Tel: 0845 073 9430
- Web: www.medpac.co.uk
- Price: Small £7.99; large £11.99
- Age range: Any age
- Description: MEDPAC – practical bags specifically designed for carrying and storing prescribed and emergency medicines, complete with photo ID and treatment card. MEDPAC lets you store medicines safely and allows you to easily identify the correct medicine for the correct child. Ideal for asthma inhalers, epipens, epilepsy and diabetic medication and more.
PTU Outdoor Toys and Equipment
- Overall Winner: The ‘Learn About Nature’ Collection
- Manufacturer: Eden Learning Spaces
- Tel: 01670 591 916
- Web: www.edenlearningspaces.co.uk
- Price: From £49.95 to £134.95 (excluding VAT)
- Age range: 5-11 years
- Description: Inspire creative learning on life cycles, habitats and forest schools with this engaging, lightweight and portable collection. Featuring realistic printed designs, the comfortable, water-resistant seating can be used as an interactive teaching resource indoors and outdoors. Versatile, durable and safe, these products can enhance the learning experience across KS1 and KS2.
Practical Pre-School Awards 2016
For 2016 the annual Practical Pre-School Awards will once again be hosted by Practical Pre-School and Primary Teacher Update. This will ensure that the overall reach of the awards continues to grow and will include products that are aimed at professional childcare and early years settings as well as those that are relevant to both key stages 1 and 2 in primary education.
Ultimately, the aim is to ensure that these awards provide those who specialise in developing products for the pre-school, childcare and key stages 1 and 2 markets with the best possible range of categories into which products can be entered.
Following on from the success of the 2015 Awards, the organisers are again working very closely with the team at Evolution PR which oversees the awards process. The final deadline for entries for all categories is May 31, 2016, with the exception of entries for the Childcare category which must be received by April 30.
Contact Lauren MacDonald via lauren@evolution-pr.co.uk or call 01327 227010 to discuss your entry. In special cases, if you feel you cannot make these deadlines please let Lauren know and she will be as flexible as possible with any additional extension.
The 2015 Practical Pre-School Awards digital edition is available to download.