Getting Started with Play Pedagogy

Here's the secret. The big perspective shift. Play isn't one more egg to add to your juggling act. Play is basket to put them in.

Developing a curriculum rationale around play pedagogy

Why Play?

Getting started

The role of the adult

Leuven Scale

Developing a curriculum rationale around play pedagogy

Learners will only be able to achieve their full potential when they feel happy, secure, and connected within their establishment. Research clearly indicates that effective learning and teaching is underpinned by an ethos of positive, nurturing relationships alongside a culture of collaboration. Teachers, classroom assistants and early years practitioners play crucial roles in motivating, engaging, nurturing and inspiring our learners.

Play is essential to consider as it helps young children’s brains to develop and for their language and communication skills. Playful pedagogy makes play experiences central to learning, engaging learners in personally meaningful activities, learning about themselves and others, and encourages autonomy and motivation.

NAC Learning, Teaching and Assessment Policy (2022)

For play pedagogy to be effective, research has shown that a clear rationale and shared understanding of the value of play is essential. This rationale and shared understanding should emanate from the child’s needs.

Realising the Ambition (2020)

Why develop a curriculum rationale?

A useful bitesize video from Ruth Reid at Northern Alliance about developing your curriculum rationale.

Northern Alliance Curriculum Rationale for Early Years

This thinglink has some wonderful resources to supporting you in thinking through the culture of your setting and developing a curriculum rationale for play.

Download this very useful document here. It will support you in considering how plan your curriculum and to balance your direct teaching and covering the Es & Os alongside considering children's interests.

Realising the Ambition, Education Scotland (2020)

Writing-a-Play-Policy.pdf

Play-Scotland-Manifesto.pdf

Play Scotland has a lot of useful resources to support the development of a rationale in your school.

Scotland-Play-Strategy-Action-Plan.pdf

Play Strategy

We want Scotland to be the best place to grow up. A nation which values play as a life-enhancing daily experience for all our children and young people; in their homes, nurseries, schools and communities.

In June 2013, the Scottish Government launched Scotland's first national Play Strategy. This Strategy was built on the views of children and young people, parents and carers, the play sector and others involved in children's wellbeing.

The Play Strategy articulates the critical importance of play, as well as our obligation to protect our children's ability to play.

Why Play?

“Remembering what play is all about and making it part of our daily lives are probably the most important factors in being a fulfilled human being. The ability to play is critical not only to being happy, but also to sustaining social relationships and being a creative, innovative person."

Brown, S. & Vaughan, C.

Education Scotland have been advocating a play based approach to teaching and learning for many years now. Click here to read a summary of each building the curriculum document, that give us a clear research based mandate for a play pedagogy approach. This highlights WHY play is important to children's development, achievement and overall wellbeing. We now have Realising the Ambition as our key national practice guidance for play pedagogy, however the background importance of these BtC documents remains.

“We know how children learn best. They learn best in an environment of quality interactions, interesting spaces and when the experiences on offer are set in meaningful contexts. They learn best in environments that inspire them to be curious and creative.”

Realising the Ambition, Education Scotland (2020)

Adverse Childhood Experiences have increasingly been highlighted as impacting on a child's readiness to learn. Research has shown that play based approaches support the development of the individual capacities…The suggestion is that this type of approach can support addressing the poverty related attainment gap and children are ready to learn, ensuring that development gaps are reduced. Education Scotland

A useful video to support you in geting started and 'finding your why'.

Headteacher James Cook shares the approaches taken to embedding Play Pedagogy at Cawdor Primary and ELC. Through school improvement the aim is to ‘embed playful approaches to learning across the school from ELC to P7 where children are able to be curious, inquire and have FUN in order to learn.’ James shares how the school has engaged with national practice guidance Realising the Ambition with a specific focus on the child centred pedagogy in practice cycle.

four-capacities-cards.pdf

Playful approaches to teaching and learning foster the development of the four capacities - you may wish to consider these when developing your curriculum rationale.

The role of play in early child development : My CollegeSara Baker, Professor of Developmental Psychology and Education, University of Cambridge, UK In this video, Sara Baker discusses the role of play in early child development, including: how play enables learning myths about play and child development how agency is developed in early childhood. You can read Sara’s article on this topic in Impact.

Froebel Trust - Slow Pedagogy

Professor Alison Clark's Froebel Trust funded research explores how slowing down our approach to early childhood education can make a huge difference to the everyday lives of young children.

In this video, learn more about how play can foster children's resilience to hardship, and how the complex interactions involved when children play help build their brains. Learn more about play and the science of early childhood development at https://developingchild.harvard.edu

Getting started

Useful documents and tips from colleagues across Scotland on getting started with play pedagogy in P1 and beyond.

This sketchnote taken from Realising the Ambition shows us what a high quality Early Level setting should look like.

Twelve features characterising a Froebelian approach to childhood play

In this blog post, Tina Bruce sets out the 12 key features of children's play.

Playful-Pedagogy-Toolkit.pdf

Playful Pedagogy Tooklit: A Guide to getting Started from playscotland.org

Highland council-Getting-Started-Play-Ped.-July-2020.pdf

A useful document from Highland Council on getting started with Play Pedagogy.

Information on Play Types from Play Scotland .

A day in the life of P1 - Leanne Sweaton, pedagody pioneer for SEIC

In this video, Leanne talks about how she started out on her play pedagogy journey. Starting from a more traditional P1 set up and moving towards a play pedagogy approach over several years.

Being me through play - Pedagogy Pioneers Scotland

Being Me through play – hear my voice through my actions, emotions and words; The play pedagogy pioneers of Scotland

Leading figures in the play pedagogy pioneer movement

In Scotland, are we getting our approach right in early years or are we just playing at it? - Lisa McCabe, Early Years Service Manager, Falkirk

Lisa gives an insight into how play pedagogy has been developed across Falkirk Council and considers some of the barriers (and solutions) to effective implementation.

The role of the adult

"The role of the adult is a delicate balance of supporting, enriching and proposing on the one hand, and keeping back to give the children space and time to build their own ideas on the other. Barbara Rogoff (2003) describes learning as a co-operative process between children and adults, where children ‘borrow’ adult knowledge and skills, and at any given moment the lead and responsibility passes back and forth. From the adult’s point of view, one can imagine this as a ‘ladder’ that they can go up and down, always aware of the child’s interest and initiative."

Realising the Ambition, Education Scotland 2020