Can I Go and Play Now?: Rethinking the Early Years

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Like I called it like a learning landscape that they’re going to go in. They’re going to have an adventure. Do you know what I’m coming with you? And we’re going to go and explore this together and it can be, it can be really, um, it can be really difficult for teachers to do. The main thing is, is it’s about childhood.

Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And you know, and hopefully this, this coming year, as, you know, touch wood, the world begins to open up in whatever way it does. I can begin to kind of get out and you know, it’s not about trying to show people they’re doing something wrong. It’s not that I’m doing this. Super simple, easy to immerse in, yet with huge potential right across school from Reception to Year 6, Babblejab! is an adventure into language and imagination. That’s going to be the most exciting part, no matter how brilliant your carpet time is. Excitement is in the middle because children are playing and they’re showing you the world and they’re showing you who they are. It really, it really is lovely. And what was lovely today, someone messaged me and just said, this is the recovery curriculum that children need. It’s just with joy and creativity. It is beautiful. Cause you know, um, did you know the story bulk baby? Yes, it does. Yeah. So, um, you use, and there’s a min pins as well that have rolled dial.They deserve magic. They don’t deserve just tired, kind of just regurgitation of stuff. And to me, the only way to teach them the so is through play. And those, I talk about play and not play. So this play, which is where children are choosing for themselves, and they are playing with whoever they wish to play with and they are interpreting the world and then there’s not play. Um, and that, that they have, um, sort of education system that really values children. And it was a real eye-opener when I went to kind of consult sort of, um, uh, coming sided with the birth of my, my daughter. And, um, I just slowly began to see that children had something about them, that they were magic. Um, and I hope every parent believes that children are magic and I would also hope every educator believes children are magic. Drawing Club is a true adventure and perfect for Reception and Year 1, though it can be adapted for Nursery and even as intervention in KS2. Based around the Golden Blend of picture books, tales and animations, it involves a short period of Time Together as a whole class followed by time with children exploring their ideas and creativity that can be adapted to how you believe is best. The adult and the child play together. So the adult kind of steps down and allows the child space and time to wonder and to question and the adult questions and one does together. So it was rather than the, that the child has to get up to the adult world. That it’s almost, it’s more of a collaborative cooperative approach because ultimately what play does because it’s in your DNA and it’s in my DNA and everyone’s in our bloodstream play.

I was shaping them just to pass a test, but the test isn’t who they are. And we won’t. And by the way, saying that we don’t, I don’t, I, you know, about testing children. It’s not to say that we don’t want to give them skills. We absolutely do want to give them skills, but we want to give skills as a gift, not as something that they have to do.It’s just about recognizing, well, we’ve got a curriculum, but can we do it in a way that gives children space for choice and it’s that bit? I think I would really try and encourage schools to do. Greg Bottrill:Tell me about adventure. Well, adventure, adventure is, um, a way of creating, um, a whole new realm. It’s a new dimension to explore, so it’s make believe. Okay. Um, and I created it last year and it was just taking off. A 50 minute recorded online chat about Scribble Club exploring the idea with me - the video is very informal as you'll discover - Bonnie my little dog really wanted to be heard... I said, I’m talking about, I’ll talk about my own son. My own son found very difficult because he, he just couldn’t get past that. He would line cars up and count them, but he couldn’t roll play with the cars, particularly it wasn’t his fascination. I knew at the age of three, he could count, you know, beyond 200. Message Centres are popping up all over the world and educators are discovering for themselves that messaging brings new life to their settings.

Cause cause playtime is there as the break for children to run around. But if you have a play culture, as I call it your play culture, Enables children to choose to go outside because outside has equal value to inside the learning will follow them, maths and writing, reading, all those things will follow them because he’s in them in here. Greg Bottrill:Um, yeah, there’s certainly you have to have what I call play parameters. You have to have rules. Um, you, you know, it’s not a free for all. Can you see something in the photo beyond just a tree? If you can, then welcome to Adventure Island! When we believe in magic and have faith in children’s imagination, we can enter a world of story and dream. Pooky Knightsmith:What thought would you like to finish with? I think it’s important to leave in people’s mind something deep gone, Greg.The Curious Quests combines short carpet sessions, group work and children exploring open-ended resources such as junk modelling, construction, playdough, role play and if possible, being outside. If you don't have 'continuous provision' like this then you can't go on the The Curious Quests. Okay. If you haven’t, it’s an amazing book and an amazing film, but it’s basically a make-believe world that you visit with the children and characters come and characters go challenges, come. Yeah, and it’s beautiful. And because it’s a collective thing, what happens is when I’m in the group, that that people can join, there’s a way of then of sharing. And the Message Centre is not only hugely impactful for writing, it also has the ability to bring joy to early reading and mathematics. What means more and is more exhilarating to children? Discovering a hidden message to read or a Guided Reading book like Sam’s Pot? See it as a sprinkle of magic over your day!! Because what you’re trying to do is create the culture where play is valued, because if you value play, you value children. If you don’t value, play. I don’t, I don’t know. I there’s an open question as to whether you value childhood, get the two are together inextricable. During this informal chat, we learn more about Greg as a person, his passion and advocacy for children shining through and he provides his thoughts on how children can be supported by play and child-led activities, how we can start the conversations with children to learn about any anxieties they may have and help them by listening.

They will leave messages for me and stuff from the, from, from, from adventure, which is quite sweet. Yeah, they, they love it. So, yeah. It’s good. Pooky Knightsmith:come they were up for play. If they haven’t done it for all that time. What, what changed it? Story Dough! is offering you the chance to 'book snuggle' with small groups of children, to spend quality time with them exploring stories, showing them the joy of manipulating play dough, sprinkling vocabulary, connecting mark making with positive emotion and above all going on an adventure with them into imagination and make-believe - all the things that childhood is looking for and the perfect opportunity to bring skills to life...So the children share there that, uh, that sort of literacy, if you like. Yeah. But the idea of play school TV is really to model this idea of showing tail and the adventure. So the schools that have already got involved with that, they often watch it. And then the children are desperate. Weirdly they’re desperate to go to venture and weirdly they don’t believe I’m real. Greg Bottrill:Yeah, so I tend to, um, I, I tend to be invited into schools, go and work directly with, with teams excitingly increasingly beyond early years as well, which is really good.