EDUCATION SPOTLIGHT
The serious business of play Louisa Ankin, head of Juniors at St Mary’s School, Cambridge, on the science behind purposeful play and the small moments that show good early years education in action
BUILDING BLOCKS St Mary’s helps children grow as individuals through play-based learning
A few weeks ago in our Reception class, I watched a four-year-old walk across the room, collect the pencils her group needed, distribute them and sit back down. Nobody had asked her to do this; she had spotted a gap and filled it. Although small, this is the cornerstone of good early years education. That kind of self-direction was the norm, not an unusual flash of grown-up behaviour. Every child looked focused and purposeful, the way children look when they know what they are doing and why. To a visitor it can read as charming and unstructured, and that’s by design. What parents don’t always see is how much is happening below the surface. According to Harvard’s Centre on the Developing Child, 90% of a child’s brain develops by five, with up to a million new neural connections forming every second. The foundations for problem-solving, self- regulation, resilience and creativity are laid
book, encounter new vocabulary and use drawing and storytelling to build fine motor skills, early writing, mathematical thinking and imagination. They go home talking about the picture that has stayed in their mind, the new word they have just discovered. This is learning shaped around the way young children think. Research published by the National Institutes of Health links high-quality early childhood education to stronger attainment, better social outcomes and higher earning potential, even when early differences in test scores later level out. If you are visiting an early years setting, watch one child for ten minutes. Not the teachers, the displays or the timetables. If the child seems confident in what she or he is doing and why, and the adults around the child are making that possible without fuss, you are looking at the real thing.
by teachers in nursery and Reception, and it’s more difficult than it looks. The room also shapes what a child learns. Where the pencils live, how high the hooks are, whether a three-year-old can reach the paper without asking: all of it shapes whether the child feels capable or feels the need for permission. A well- designed room means they can find what they need, make a choice and begin work without being told. When in any early years setting, what to look for is simple. Children absorbed rather than waiting; a teacher who asks ‘are you ready?’ rather than instructing; materials within reach and purposeful noise instead of obedient hush. Parents often worry about whether play-based learning is enough. Done properly, it’s the most effective way to teach young children. At St Mary’s, our drawing club is one example of this in action. Each week, girls explore a picture
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