Emilie Silverwood-Cope: Missing out on the crucial years of learning to play nicely together
Children are heading back to school after a six-week break so it might seem odd that the thing most on my mind is their playtime.
I have never checked how much playtime my children will get each day and yet study after study shows that it is a vital part of their development. Us parents worry about catchment areas, exam results and Ofsted ratings. Maybe we should also be asking about how much play time they get, and what they are allowed to do with it.
A 2017 study funded by Nuffield Foundation (undertaken by academics at the UCL Institute of Education) revealed playtime was already in decline. Their data showed ‘Key Stage 1 (five to seven years of age) have 45 minutes less break time per week than children of the same age in 1995 and pupils at Key Stage 3 and 4 (11 to 16 years) have 65 minutes less’.
Hardly any schools have an afternoon play session beyond Key Stage 1 and lunch breaks have been cut – usually giving children just enough time to get and eat their food before lessons begin again. The study also showed that 60 per cent of schools used withholding playtime as a punishment. Some schools will make children go outside alone, missing the point entirely of social play.
Teachers blame a busier, more complex curriculum as well as staff shortages, poor behaviour by children, financial cuts and reduced outdoor space. Children’s playtime is decided by the school and, unlike staff breaks, is not legally protected. However, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child has the right to play baked in: Article 31 states countries must ‘recognise the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts’. Governments are expected to respect, protect and fulfil this right.
Why have I been thinking so much about children and play? On Friday, 6 September the Covid Inquiry held its first preliminary hearing for their eighth investigation, ‘Children and Young People’ (Module 8). One of the most affecting sights of the pandemic was boarded-up play areas. In our local park signs were still up warning children about social distancing long after restrictions on adults had been rescinded.
I can see the impact of lockdown on my own children and I hear about it all the time from my friends. I know of school refusers and children with eating disorders. We have an epidemic of anxiety as well as reports of dysregulated behaviour, loneliness and too much screen time. In 2023, 36.6 per cent of 10 to 11-year-olds were recorded as being overweight or obese.
Teachers are reporting that lockdown children seem two years behind their chronological age. Immature children are unable to cope well with key transition stages like moving schools and even getting a job. A teacher contacted me to tell me that at one primary school playtimes are now structured play only. Teachers lead playtimes because the children just can’t play well with each other. They have missed the crucial early years of learning to share and play nice.
Is it Pollyanna of me to think what’s actually needed is more playtime? Possibly not. The benefits of child-led free play are immense and organisations such as Opal Play and Playing Out are campaigning for just this.
Opal Play works with schools to make sure ‘every child in every school has an amazing hour of high-quality play every day’. They have evidence to back up their goal – testimonials from teachers confirm children are behaving better and interacting better with each other thanks to this golden hour.
Playing Out wants to reverse our attitudes to children playing outside with each other after school. They encourage communities to create spaces where children can play safely on streets. They ask councils to close off roads to allow local communities to come together for a car free day devoted instead to playing.
If we want well adjusted and resilient children it’s the best thing for them. They have to learn how to interact with each other. They should fall out, make friends, take risks and push boundaries. They need adventure playgrounds, places they can build dens, things to climb and maybe even fall off from. To be blunt, they need to be allowed to have more fun.
For more information, visit outdoorplayandlearning.org.uk/ and playingout.net/about/.
Read more Parenting Truths from Emilie Silverwood-Cope every month in the Cambridge Independent.
