04 Oct Play organisations join forces to fight for more playtime at school for child wellbeing
A coalition of organisations, led by the British Psychological Society (BPS) and including Save the Children and Play England, is urging the government to give children more time to play at primary school to protect their physical and mental wellbeing.
In a letter to the Education Secretary – following a survey for the British Psychological Society (BPS) by YouGov which found 96% of parents believed access to playtime at school was important for their children, while 79% of parents said play was more than, or equally as important as ‘catching up’ academically post-pandemic – the coalition argues that the government’s strategy for pandemic recovery presents an opportunity to re-evaluate priorities for children in school and to put play first to protect the mental wellbeing of school children.
It says that school should be a place which enables children to flourish and allows for their social development; and this is even more important as we emerge from the pandemic and the government doubles down the focus on ‘academic catch up’.
The move comes as the BPS launches its ‘Time to play’ campaign’, which calls for an extra of 10 minutes of playtime per day for children at school, to make up for the time children have lost over previous years. Research shows that since 1995 primary school children have lost 45 minutes of playtime a week* and the BPS survey revealed that 69% of parents asked said they were concerned about the negative impact of the pandemic on the opportunities for their children to play at school.
Commenting on the publication of the letter, Katherine Carpenter, President of the British Psychological Society, said: “Play isn’t an add-on, or a ‘nice to have’, it’s a fundamental right for our children. Put simply, play is fun and children enjoy it. It also happens to bring a multitude of benefits to aid children’s development and wellbeing, some which happen during play and some which manifest afterwards such as socialisation, problem solving and reflective learning.”
“The government has a real opportunity to actually listen to the evidence from our experts which demonstrates the essential value of play to our children’s health and wellbeing and restore 10 minutes of lost playtime to the school day which children have seen disappear.”
