Early Years play is powerful. How do we protect it?

This session explores the meaning, value, and pedagogy of play in early childhood, hosted by Dr. Stella Louis and Julia Manning Morton. Play is an integrating mechanism for children's learning, but risks adult interference and "schoolification". Dr Stella and Julia highlight the importance of schemas, and the need for genuine two-way partnerships with parents.

Key takeaways

1. Embed a "pause" practice into daily pedagogy.
   Practitioners should be trained to observe before intervening, allowing children to struggle productively and reach their own conclusions. Evidence shows that stepping in too early undermines children's sense of mastery, competence, and autonomy.
2. Create "yes spaces" for children, particularly the youngest.
   Settings should audit their physical environments to ensure safe, appropriately resourced spaces where infants and toddlers can play freely without unnecessary adult interference. This directly supports emotional well-being and independent exploration.
3. Develop two-way parent partnership programmes around schemas.
   Rather than a one-directional expert-to-parent model, settings should co-create observation sharing between home and setting, using schemas as an accessible entry point. This approach has been shown to positively impact children's learning and parent-child relationships.
4. Reframe "challenging behaviour" through a developmental lens.
   Practitioners should be supported to interpret schematic behaviours — such as climbing, opening and closing, or dismantling objects — as purposeful learning rather than misbehaviour, recognising that children always act with reason and intent.
5. Prioritise care events as a core element of practice with young children.
   Settings should position care routines not as secondary to play but as the relational foundation that enables children to play freely and creatively, particularly for children under three.
6. Advocate for and align practice with frameworks such as Birth to Five Matters.
   Leaders and practitioners are encouraged to resist top-down schoolification pressures by grounding their pedagogy in professional knowledge of child development, supporting both less experienced and more knowledgeable practitioners through a spiral curriculum approach.