Education White Paper - is there room to play??

Listening to Radio 4 this morning I was slightly heartened to hear that Michael Gove thinks that the new national curriculm should cover just 50% of the time, and that there should be plenty of space for 'music, creativity and' (did I hear this right???) 'fun'.

Well having just scanned the summaries on the children & young people now, times leader & comment, Mike Baker's blog and the DfE website I'm not so sure. I'm going to wait for NCB's assessment, but I am not at all sure this will give schools the confidence to think about the whole child.

The white paper seems to have a lot to say about behaviour. But nothing about the fact that schools still far too frequently pay scant regard to their outdoor environments, pushing hundreds of kids into huge expanses of concrete and no thought or support for their play or recreation.

Many schools are now reaping the rewards of investing in playtimes - chalks, scrap to play with, children empowered to shape their spaces. And these schools see a massive improvement in behaviour. Schools like St John the Baptist in Hackney and the schools that have scrapstores like Bromley Heath where I took the picture below. There the Head Teacher said he has saved 20 minutes after lunch every day because he no longer has cues of children to see him, and importantly those children that were always being told off for behavioral issues fell they are succeeding.

So how about we call for playtime to be extended in all schools? That children have to have 20 minutes morning and afternoon and 90 minutes for lunch? That's one return to the old-school that many of us would cheer!