Orchard Toys provided pre-school settings with educational resources designed to support key early years development skills.

The Learning Made Fun campaign saw pre-schools nationwide receive education resource packs designed to help teachers encourage children in their settings to engage with the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) education framework. According to post campaign research, 83% of teachers reported that the packs really helped their class to do that.

The educational resources included Orchard Toys games and jigsaws, activity sheets, certificates and stickers. The contents centred around supporting a range of key early years development skills, including number, letter and shape recognition; sequencing; matching and memory, observation and social skills.

All pre-schools integrated the games and puzzles into everyday play in the classroom, with nearly two thirds of settings also creating dedicated Orchard Toys sessions.

Asked to rank the products for their relevance to EYFS skills, teachers’ top five Orchard Toys are:

1.    Dinosaur Opposites – communication & language

2.    Giant Road Jigsaw – understanding the world

3.    Dotty Dinosaurs Game – mathematics

4.    Big Number Jigsaw – counting

5.    Crazy Chef’s Game – understanding the world

In addition to assets and products for pre-school settings, Orchard Toys also provided take home elements for the children, which were positively received by parents, according to the campaign feedback.

Simon Newbery, managing director at Orchard Toys, said: “Learning Made Fun is at the heart of everything we do, ensuring our games, jigsaws and activity books strike the perfect balance of education and fun. I’m not surprised that our Education Resource Pack was a hit with preschools, as the brand is loved by teachers, as well as parents and children, and we’re delighted that all participating teachers would recommend it to others”.