Play-based learning beyond Early Years: what needs careful consideration?
Discussion about the place of play-based learning beyond the Early Years Foundation Stage has become increasingly visible. The parliamentary petition ‘Make Play and Continuous Provision statutory in England’s Key Stage 1 Curriculum’ attracted 106,082 signatures, received a formal response from the Department for Education and was debated by MPs on 26 January 2026.
I welcome the attention this has brought to the subject. It creates an important opportunity to consider not only the transition from Reception into Year 1, but the place of purposeful, play-informed learning across primary education.
The Government has recognised that play is important to children’s wellbeing and development, and during the parliamentary debate it accepted the distinction between play-based learning and enrichment. However, it did not support making play and continuous provision statutory within Key Stage 1, stating that teachers should retain flexibility over the approaches they use. The debate has therefore raised the profile of the issue, but it has not changed the statutory curriculum.
The transition from the Foundation Stage into Year 1 is often described as a shift into a more ‘formal’ learning environment. Children may move from provision that includes choice, exploration and extended opportunities for play into classrooms where learning is more heavily directed by adults.
Yet this does not have to be a sharp divide.
In settings where Year 1 sits alongside or within the Early Years environment, it becomes easier to see the year as a bridge: still drawing on the ways young children learn through exploration, talk, movement and purposeful play, while gradually increasing independence, challenge and curriculum expectations.
The immediate discussion often centres on Year 1 because this is where the discontinuity can be most visible. My own view is broader. There is a strong case for retaining the principles of play-informed learning throughout Key Stage 1 and, in age-appropriate forms, beyond it. Those principles should evolve as children grow rather than disappearing at an arbitrary point.
Doing this well requires more than moving Early Years resources into an older classroom or simply allowing children additional time to choose what they do. It requires careful thought about purpose, curriculum, progression, the learning environment and the role of the adult.
Seeing transition as a bridge
Children do not suddenly begin learning differently because they have reached the end of Reception.
The skills developed through play in the Foundation Stage—communication, collaboration, problem-solving, creativity, self-regulation and sustained attention—do not become less relevant at five or six years old. They continue to support children as learning becomes more complex, and they remain important throughout primary education.
A carefully planned transition can retain familiar ways of learning while gradually introducing new expectations. Children can be supported to manage longer periods of focused activity, take greater responsibility for their work and develop increasing independence without losing all access to exploration and purposeful play.
Thinking of Year 1 as a bridge allows continuity and progression to exist together. It can also encourage a wider question: which aspects of active, exploratory and collaborative learning remain valuable as children move further through school?
Being clear about what play-based learning means
One of the difficulties in discussions about play-based learning is that the term can mean very different things to different people.
It can sometimes be interpreted as children being left to occupy themselves while adults remain at a distance. It may also be associated with attractive activities that keep children busy but have limited connection to intended learning.
High-quality play-based learning is neither unstructured free time nor a collection of loosely related activities.
It involves environments and experiences designed with a clear understanding of children’s development, interests and curriculum needs. Children can make meaningful choices, but those choices take place within provision that has been carefully considered.
Purposeful play gives children opportunities to apply knowledge, investigate ideas, solve problems, communicate and return to learning over time. Adults observe, interact, model and extend thinking where this will deepen the experience.
When discussing older pupils, I use the term ‘play-informed’ deliberately. It does not necessarily mean recreating Reception-style continuous provision in every year group. It means retaining valuable principles such as enquiry, purposeful choice, practical exploration, creativity, collaboration and opportunities to revisit ideas, while adapting them to children’s age and curriculum.
Research also calls for a thoughtful rather than absolute position. A 2022 systematic review and meta-analysis of guided-play studies involving children aged one to eight found evidence of benefits for some outcomes, including early mathematics, shape knowledge and task switching. It did not find advantages across every area and noted important limitations in the quality and consistency of the available evidence. This supports careful attention to how play is designed and guided, rather than assuming that any activity described as play will automatically improve learning.
The presence of play does not remove intention or challenge. When it is planned and supported thoughtfully, it can provide a meaningful context in which both can develop.
Maintaining curriculum ambition
Extending play-informed approaches beyond Early Years should not mean lowering expectations or avoiding the curriculum.
Children still need access to carefully sequenced knowledge and explicit teaching. Some content is best introduced directly, and some skills require focused explanation, modelling and practice.
The important consideration is how this teaching connects with the wider learning environment.
A direct teaching session may introduce a mathematical idea, new vocabulary or a particular writing skill. Well-designed provision can then offer opportunities for children to revisit, apply and deepen that learning in different contexts.
Ofsted’s 2024 report on the first years of school emphasised the importance of a clear curriculum, appropriate pedagogy and sufficient opportunities for children to practise foundational knowledge. That emphasis need not be treated as an argument against play. It is a reminder that play-informed provision should be connected to what children need to learn and should not leave their progress to chance.
This requires practitioners to understand what children are expected to learn and how opportunities across the day contribute to that progression. Provision should not remain unchanged simply because children enjoy it. Resources and experiences need to develop alongside children’s learning, knowledge, interests and capabilities.
Play-informed learning is most effective when it sits within a coherent curriculum rather than operating separately from it.
Designing provision with purpose
An Early Years classroom cannot simply be copied into Year 1, or into any other part of a school, and be expected to produce the same outcomes.
The environment needs to reflect the age, development, prior experiences and curriculum expectations of the children using it.
Areas of provision should have a clear purpose. Resources need to offer sufficient depth and flexibility to sustain engagement rather than encouraging children to move quickly between disconnected activities. Children also need time to develop ideas, revisit previous learning and work with increasing complexity.
As children grow, the provision should grow with them. Construction, role play, creative work, investigation and outdoor learning can remain valuable, but the resources, expectations and adult involvement will need to adapt appropriately.
In later primary years, the same principles may appear through sustained enquiry, practical problem-solving, drama, collaborative design, investigation or purposeful projects rather than through a permanent set of continuous-provision areas.
The question should not be whether a classroom contains particular areas or resources. It should be what those spaces and experiences make possible for the children and how they contribute to meaningful learning.
Understanding the role of the adult
The quality of play-informed learning depends greatly on the knowledge and decisions of the adults supporting it.
Practitioners need to recognise what children are exploring, understand the learning that may be taking place and decide when their involvement could add value. At times, this may involve modelling language, introducing information, asking a carefully chosen question or helping children consider a problem differently.
At other times, the most appropriate decision may be to observe and allow children time to develop their own thinking.
Knowing when to step in and when to stand back requires professional judgement. Too little adult involvement can leave learning superficial or allow misconceptions to continue. Too much can interrupt children’s concentration and turn their ideas back into an adult-led task.
This means that extending play-informed practice requires investment in professional learning. Staff need time to develop their understanding, observe children closely, discuss what they notice and reflect on the impact of their interactions.
Changing the physical environment without developing adult practice is unlikely to lead to meaningful change.
Combining different ways of learning
Discussions about play and formal learning can create an unhelpful choice between two apparently opposing approaches.
In reality, children benefit from different ways of learning across the school day and throughout their primary education. Direct teaching, guided practice, independent work, collaborative investigation, movement, discussion and play can all make important contributions.
The balance between them will vary according to the children, the learning intention and the context. Not everything needs to be taught through play, just as not everything needs to be delivered through whole-class instruction or completed at a table.
The aim is not to protect one particular method. It is to make thoughtful decisions about which approach is most likely to support the learning at that moment.
When different approaches are connected coherently, children can gain both the knowledge provided through explicit teaching and the opportunities to apply, test and make sense of it through active experience.
Considering the realities of each setting
A successful approach in one school cannot necessarily be transferred unchanged into another.
Available space, staffing, class size, timetable expectations, staff expertise and access to outdoor provision will all influence what is possible. The children’s previous experiences and the expectations of families and the wider school community also need to be considered.
This does not mean that constraints should automatically prevent change. It means that change needs to be designed around the realities of the setting rather than based on an idealised model.
Leaders also need to consider how the approach will be understood across the school. If play-informed learning is viewed as a temporary reduction in expectations, staff may feel pressure to demonstrate that each year group looks increasingly ‘formal’. Clear professional discussion is needed about the purpose of the approach, how it will evolve with age, how progression will be recognised and how the quality of learning will be evaluated.
Sustainable change is more likely when leaders and teams develop a shared understanding rather than introducing a new classroom layout without the systems or professional knowledge needed to support it.
Looking beyond Year 1
The Reception-to-Year 1 transition is an important starting point for this discussion, but it should not be its limit.
Older primary-aged children continue to benefit from opportunities to investigate, create, collaborate, solve problems and apply learning in meaningful contexts. These experiences can support engagement, regulation and deeper understanding.
Extending the principles of play does not necessarily mean recreating continuous provision throughout every year group. It may instead involve increasing opportunities for enquiry, practical exploration, purposeful choice, imagination and sustained collaborative work within the curriculum.
The balance will change as children develop, and different subjects and learning intentions will require different approaches. What should remain consistent is the recognition that active, meaningful learning does not stop being valuable at a particular age.
A serious discussion about play beyond Early Years therefore needs to include both continuity at the start of Key Stage 1 and the thoughtful evolution of play-informed pedagogy across the wider primary phase.
A transition, and a curriculum, that responds to children
The discussion about play-based learning beyond Early Years raises important questions about what we expect transition and progression to achieve.
Progress should involve increasing knowledge, challenge, responsibility and independence. But progress does not have to mean removing every familiar and effective way of learning as soon as children enter Year 1, or assuming that active and exploratory learning belongs only to the youngest children.
When play is purposeful and thoughtfully planned, it does not limit learning. It can deepen it by giving children opportunities to use what they know, develop ideas and make connections that are meaningful to them.
Extending play-informed approaches requires careful curriculum thinking, skilled adults, appropriate environments and leadership that understands both the possibilities and the practical challenges.
Perhaps the question is not simply whether children are ready to move away from play, but whether we are prepared to design transitions, classrooms and curricula that draw on a wider understanding of how children learn—within Year 1 and beyond.
References and further reading
House of Commons Library: E-petition 729440 relating to play in the Key Stage 1 curriculum
Ofsted: Strong foundations in the first years of school (2024)
Skene et al. (2022): systematic review and meta-analysis of guided play
