To ask you if you believe play should be part of the KS1 national curriculum?

[Cavalierchaos]

So I am a Year 1 teacher who is 'allowed' continuous provision in her classroom, but my fellow Year 1 teachers in my school, plus the headteacher and deputy head (who was an EYFS leader), say that the children shouldn't be 'playing with toys'. They believe that any use of the continuous provision must be 'purposeful' - that there must be teacher directed 'challenges' with end outcomes that the children must work towards.

I believe this is rubbish, and that play should be free and child led.

If you agree, would you sign this petition? Sorry if this is not allowed, but I came across it this weekend and I think it is so important that play, true play, is recognised in the Year 1 curriculum.

petition.parliament.uk/petitions/729440

Signed. Having play in school is probably the only reason my son is still attending, it is a necessary step.

Your leadership team needs some EYFS training it sounds like, it leads so well into Y1!

Signed. They also need to remove 50% of the KS1 curriculum as there is no time to properly learn anything (and also no time for play) it is just rush, rush, rush to get through the curriculum.

Gosh that's really excessive at 6. Ours only do reading book and we have the log ins for timestable rockstars. I think the school like them to do the latter but they don't enforce it. They do ask them to read their reading books daily. Dealing with the after school restraint collapse is hard enough at this age alone trying to get them to sit down and do homework. I do agree with you on attainment being so different. I noticed it in spring term when some children were on bookbands that the more advanced children were doing a year before. You can already see at 6 which kids are getting the extra support at home compared to those that aren't. It's quite sad to see.

I've signed. I'm totally in favour of continuous provision in year 1. As a teacher you can concentrate on the groups you are working with and the rest are improving their communication and social skills.

They should be allowed time with toys yes

I think you need to make it explicit this is England-only. Education is devolved. In Wales Foundation phase (equivalent to the English KS1) is play-focused learning with access to toys throughout the day.

Slightly mad that this is not the case in England.

I agree. Ours call it 'golden time' - it's a reward for getting all their work done. Theoretically I think it can be removed if poor behaviour across a large proportion of a class, but my daughter has got it every week, although her class is 17 children so it's easier to ensure positive behaviour across a larger number.

That is something I think should change - smaller class sizes - living in a village both mine have never had their class go over 22, usually hovers between 18 and 20, and this makes such a difference - meaningful play based learning is much easier to facilitate with a smaller number.

Can I ask ( as a teacher not in UK) how does it work in practice . Is it for a certain period of the day and there is more explicit instruction at times. Very interested in this as I am passionate about play but as an infant teacher I would have had a free play time in the morning but during the day used play based learning as part of my lessons eg shape sorting activities, matching games for phonics etc.
(Children start school usually around 5 here)

I’ve signed. Good idea to share it on this forum. We need those 100k+ signatures!