Learning through play literacy slump

I recently wrote a blog post with a very brief overview of two competing attitudes towards free flow play. I thought I’d follow this up by mentioning an article I read this week in the Times Educational Supplement regarding a supposed drop in literacy and behaviour standards among a ‘significant minority’ of pupils being taught through the play-led foundation phase curriculum adopted in Wales.

According to TES, many head teachers have reported that following the implementation of the Foundation Phase a greater percentage of pupils have fallen behind their expected reading age and literacy levels in some schools have fallen by up to 10%. The article states that “after three years of the scheme being rolled out to primary settings across the country, there are signs that in some schools the learning through play approach is causing problems”.

Whilst this is far from a conclusive indictment of the concept of play-based learning or indeed the Foundation Phase itself, I thought it was an interesting footnote to my previous post.