Should year 1 children still have continuous provision and Learning Through Play in KS1?

“The dilemma still exists as to whether play can provide any kind of ‘excellence’ in relation to ‘real’ learning for children as current and future citizens” (Moyles 2005, p. 3)

  

As you perhaps know, Learning Through Play is a huge passion of mine - the benefits of which I feel are far reaching and long lasting. This blog post focuses on a research investigation I undertook whilst training to be a Teacher: "Should year 1 children still have continuous provision?" - it is a watered down version of the original, but I hope will encourage you to make time and space for planning in play based learning for both younger and older children (year 1, year 2 / KS1 and even beyond) whether you are a professional or a parent, based on research fact alongside personal opinion....

Project Playroom Extension - Laminate Flooring and Underfloor Heating

Last year, I wrote about our extension building work - Project Playroom Extension - Planning and Building. Once the build itself was complete - we had to wait for quite a long time for the concrete floor to dry out enough to continue with our plans and lay the laminate flooring.

This wasn't something I had planned for when thinking about our 'timeline'. Naively, I assumed that once the building was finished we would just lay the floor and everything would be finished, but it took just over 3 months to dry enough for the next step...

Teenage suicide - what are the warning signs and how can you help?

Last month, the lives of some of my closest family were changed forever as one of the younger members, Quinn, took her own life a few short weeks before Christmas. Quinn was just 17.

The passing of anyone you know and care about feels like a huge loss, but when they leave this life by choice, the “what ifs” feel louder, the responsibility feels heavier and the ability to make sense of it all feels so out of reach. We know we aren’t to blame, and yet we still can’t help but wonder if we could have done more...