Do we really expect five-year-olds to sit at their desks? I want a school that understands that play is learning Rhiannon Lucy Coslett

“C“Childhood doesn’t end on the day you turn five,” Ruth Le-Qui told me over the phone as she herded her son to the playground at half-term. “Play is what children are born to do. It is innate in them. “This is how they learn.” The former deputy head teacher said Petition to make teaching play-based A key part of the National Curriculum for Key Stage 1 (KS1) in England has received nearly the 100,000 signatures needed to be debated in Parliament.

Observe any nursery or reception class and you’ll see what they mean: children roaming freely, modeling wet clay covered in glitter, playing pretend kitchen, and drumming in a music cabinet. They interact in an organic, self-directed way, moving, using their imagination and following their own initiative. This is how the vast majority of early years students spend their time learning. However, the moment a child finishes reception and begins their first year, the English education system essentially dictates that playtime is over.

I recently toured schools for my son, so in some cases I saw this transition from childhood to mini-adulthood happening before my eyes. You emerge from a reception class alive with movement and chatter to enter a year-above classroom only to see a marked shift in atmosphere and environment. The children look so young that they sit at their desks with the teacher standing at the front of the room to deliver a maths or phonics lesson. Like many others, I find myself wondering if we are setting them up for failure by putting too much pressure on them too soon, by making them sit still when they want to move their bodies.

This turnaround at the age of five makes England something of an outsider on a global scale. In Scandinavia, formal education is delayed until the age of six or seven. Perhaps surprisingly to some, high-performing Asian countries such as China and Singapore have systems that integrate play as a core principle in kindergarten or primary school. And even closer to home, in Scotland and Wales, Playing part is legal From its equivalents in the KS1 curriculum. In England, some headteachers, such as Tina Farr at Oxford Primary, buck the trend, but for the most part, Farr says: “If a Victorian time traveler arrived at the school they would recognize it immediately.”

In her old job, Low-Qui worked in three state primary schools in the West Midlands and was therefore on the front lines of the move away from play-based learning. In most parts of the Western world, as in the UK, a gradual shift has occurred for decades, against the advice of many gurus. But in 2014, with changes to Michael Gove’s curriculum, Lo-Q noticed a profound shift towards more formal learning. She has tried hard to incorporate play into her schools. Working with a class of 30 pupils, some of whom are from Sindh and some of whom speak limited English, she says play-based learning provides an environment to develop skills that many of them do not yet have. “This meant that there was no child in the classroom where they felt lost,” she said.

Lue-Quee introduced a role-play area in the form of a wooden ‘home’ corner that children could transform into whatever their imagination desired – a kitchen, a living room, a space rocket – which had an ‘extraordinary’ impact on the development of their language and social skills. There was also a Creative Corner – a space where children could access drawing, craft and art materials to play, create and build at will, aiding their motor skills and helping them learn how to hold pencils and write. When the school became affiliated with the academy, the CEO told Lue-Quee that these spaces did not belong in the KS1 classroom, and were removed and replaced with desks.

It wasn’t long before Lue-Quee resigned to become… Education consultant He is an activist specializing in the importance of play. Like many teachers, I felt that these shifts in education were in direct conflict with popular perception Research Authority About how play supports the foundation of childhood learning, promoting everything from social skills and language development to fine and gross motor skills, as well as aiding the literacy, numeracy, critical thinking and problem-solving skills that many politicians believe should be delivered through top-down teaching approaches. It plays an essential role in wellbeing too, providing children with physical exercise and helping them regulate their emotions and manage stress.

Not only are English pupils deprived of the need, and even the right, to learn through play, they also have to learn more formally and much more quickly than their predecessors. In 2009, under Ed Balls, the law on school admissions was changed, making it the rule for all children to start school at the age of four. This is coupled with Gove’s high expectations for learning, and what was taught in the first year is now taught in reception – and to much younger children. No wonder it has become common to hear parents talking about wanting to postpone the start of reception, especially for babies born in the summer, because they simply are not ready yet.

By refusing to accept that children learn in specific ways, and by short-circuiting the crucial developmental stage of play-based learning, the English education system has made a grave mistake. The constant headlines about children being developmentally unprepared to start school, the record numbers of children refusing school, and the inability of the system to adequately support pupils, certainly indicate this.

Are young children really failing or is the system failing them? Campaigners hope that the Labor government will agree to the latter option and implement urgent reforms. In the meantime, all parents like me can do is try to find a school that, when you walk around, still feels lively with laughter and play, and hope there’s a place for their child there.