Call to revive play at UK schools to tackle ‘escalating crisis’ in child health

Campaigners studying play and childhood are calling for a major focus on reviving play in schools to tackle an “escalating crisis” in child mental and physical health.

The “plan for play” launched on Tuesday outlines a vision for the Department for Education to require every school to have a play plan that would be subject to Ofsted inspection. Under the proposals, teachers would be taught about play-based learning for children of all ages, not only early years.

Michael Follett, the director of Opal Play, an organisation that works to improve school playtimes, said children’s poor health could be tackled by a focus on play in all aspects of their life – but particularly in schools.

“There is a current and escalating crisis in childhood. Children are less fit and less active. They are increasingly suffering from mental health problems at a scale we have never seen before.

“Schools are now like a wildlife reserve for childhood – they could be the space that saves some of what is special for children. Even if this is the only play they ever experience it can make a significant difference in their lives – and for some children it really is the only play they get.”

Opal helps UK primary schools improve playtime using training on different types of play and a focus on junk equipment such as tyres, rope and sand, as well as dressing up.

One of the big challenges for schools is curriculum pressure that is cutting playtimes short. A 2019 report from the University College London Institute of Education found breaktimes in England had shrunk over the past two decades, with older pupils having lost more than an hour a week.

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