You may have noticed a new all-party parliamentary group report - Play was published this week which has great potential to change the current early years (and older) education system in the UK.
Play - A report by the all-party parliamentary group on a fit and healthy childhood
“Children learn and develop both while playing and through play - they are both learning how to cope with the immediate world around them, and at the same time, acquiring skills that will serve them well in the future. Opportunities for that to happen are fast diminishing.
The preparation and delivery of a national Whole Child Strategy with play at it’s heart, supported by practice and evidential research, is therefore the most important recommendation in this report.”
The 64 page document essentially boils down to saying to produce happy and healthy children you need a setting like Little Forest Folk rather than the more formal and indoor learning styles favoured by most nurseries and schools.
This is a very exciting report for us to read and I'm sure many of you would be interested to take a look as the report really values child led play based natural settings, including an element of physical risk (such as climbing trees) as without these we cannot hope to give our children the tools they need to build their characters in life.
The more parents that read and comment on this report, the more chance we have of them actually implementing the changes recommended to the Ofsted and school systems.
Little Forest Folk