Reflect

The visit reminded me that play isn’t a break from learning; it is learning. It also highlighted the urgent importance of ensuring children have time to play and of helping parents understand the science behind play.

Some time ago, I had the pleasure of interviewing someone well positioned to reflect on the importance of play and of Lego, Professor Paul Ramchandani, the LEGO Professor of Play at the University of Cambridge. In that interview, Professor Ramchandani outlined the compelling research evidence behind play, describing how it is through play that children rehearse essential life skills: problem-solving, emotional regulation, communication, planning, negotiation and persistence. These are not “nice to haves”; they are foundational capacities that support academic learning, wellbeing and long-term resilience.

He talked about the concept of “play diets” and suggested that, just as we care about what children consume nutritionally, we should also consider the kinds of play that fill their days. A balanced play diet might include physical play (running, climbing, rough and tumble), socio-dramatic and imaginative play (inventing worlds, role-playing, story-making), creative play (building, drawing, tinkering), social play (cooperative games and shared projects), and quiet, self-directed play (puzzles, reading, focused building). Children thrive when they experience a rich variety of hands-on, self-directed, open-ended play opportunities.

The beauty of children having a space dedicated to play at school is that it becomes a curiosity lab where pupils are invited to test ideas, collaborate, imagine and create. Within such spaces, children work alone or together, experimenting with structure, movement, design and narrative. Challenges are embraced rather than avoided. When something collapses or fails, pupils learn to refine, rethink or rebuild, strengthening resilience and perseverance. Social skills flourish naturally; conversations are sparked, ideas are shared and problems are solved collaboratively. Teachers step back and become facilitators, allowing play to remain child-led, as the research advocates. Importantly, a room dedicated to play and creativity, such as Willington’s LEGO Room, offers a rare kind of psychological permission. It tells children that their ideas matter, their creativity is valued and that the learning process, rather than the product, is what counts.

I am often asked by parents, “How do I get my child off a screen?” or “How can I get them to read more?” But I have never been asked, “How can I protect their play?” or “How can we play more together as a family?”

Whilst within our busy family lives, planning time for play is important, when we do play, let’s try to allow our imaginations (and our children's) to run riot, rather than being too prescriptive. A cardboard box can turn into almost anything if we give children time to imagine. Sheets placed across sofas can transform a living room into an exciting hidden world and spark storytelling.

As I write this, I am thinking of the rich, imaginative play I experienced during my own childhood, in a house filled with cubby holes that made perfect secret spaces. A tree at the front of the house became a spy lookout and a hole in the hedge at the back became a thrilling exit route into neighbours’ gardens where we played hide and seek or kick the can.

During these play periods, as one of three siblings among a large friendship group, things would inevitably go wrong. I remember being berated by my older brother for not counting quickly enough to 20, and my dad telling him off out the window for shouting at me. I remember my sibling being injured by a piece of wire hidden in a bush, seeing the blood and rushing into the house for help. I remember many occasions when a child would huff, puff and storm off, claiming everyone else was cheating and that they didn’t want to play anymore (sometimes that was me!).

Play teaches us about ourselves, about others and about how the world works. It introduces big themes linked to democracy, equity and inclusion and it helps children develop strategies for thinking, negotiation and conflict resolution. It is one of the most important aspect of children’s lives.

As parents, can we commit to ensuring our children have free time in their busy schedules to simply be? To be bored and to discover what happens when they are left to potter? Yes, it might mean hiding iPads, the remote control or access to phones, but it will be worth it. Consider joining in and modelling a love of letting your hair down. When was the last time you painted or coloured something in, made something with play dough or looked at a pile of Lego bricks and felt excited at the thought of building something?

Motivate

In a world that prizes constant productivity, choosing to slow down with a simple story or a beautifully illustrated book can feel like a gentle act of rebellion. These stories invite us to reconnect with wonder, revisit themes of courage and kindness, and rediscover the grounding safety of familiar characters. Far from being frivolous, this kind of playful regression can replenish creativity, ease stress and remind us of the uncomplicated joy of being absorbed in a simple story.

I tried it to see what happened and reached for one of my favourite childhood books, Amelia Bedelia Helps Out by Peggy Parish. Within minutes, I found myself smiling at moments I had long forgotten, remembering not only the story but the feeling of being a child: unhurried, curious, utterly absorbed, laughing out loud at the time Amelia was asked to ‘dress the salad’ and put a jacket on a vegetable. I remembered begging to stay up to read one more chapter and the excitement of rushing to the library to find more books by the same author.

As adults, we rarely grant ourselves the same space for play that we encourage in children. Yet the wellbeing benefits are just as profound. Picking up a colouring pencil, building a wobbly Lego tower or losing ourselves in a children’s story can offer a welcome pause from the pace and pressure of everyday life. When we reconnect with the playful parts of our identity, we return to our families, our work and our communities with more patience, more creativity and more emotional room to support others.

So perhaps the invitation is a simple one: let yourself play. Read a book meant for an eight-year-old or go to your parents’ attic and find the books you used to love to read. Build the set your child abandoned halfway. Wander into worlds where imagination is the only currency. When we model this openness to playfulness, we give children permission to protect their own play and we remind ourselves that brilliance begins with curiosity, joy and a willingness to enter the world with a lighter heart.

Support

Screen-based stories and the odd television cartoon or film can be fun to cuddle up and watch together, but they will never replace the richness of the written word. I was reminded of this after hosting a a recent Tooled Up webinar with the wonderfully engaging reading scientist and psychologist Dr Maria Korochkina. Her session was inspiring and a strong reminder that we all need to work a little harder to ensure that children not only have access to books but to a wide diversity of them.

Dr Korochkina’s research highlights how linguistically rich children’s literature truly is: thousands of distinct words, complex morphemes and nuanced emotional language that rarely appear in everyday speech. Even books written for younger readers introduce vocabulary that broadens understanding of the world and quietly builds the foundations of flexible, future-focused thinking. Adults may not be consciously seeking vocabulary development or improved emotional literacy when returning to these texts, yet the benefits are still there. By reading widely, children are exposed to new ideas, new words and new perspectives.

Recent research paints a concerning picture about the extent to which our children are reading and enjoying books. Fewer children are reading for pleasure than ever before. In 2024, only one in three UK children and young people aged 8 to 18 said they enjoyed reading in their free time. Only one in five reported reading daily for pleasure, the lowest level since the National Literacy Trust began tracking this data in 2005.

At the same time, research also shows a marked decline in children’s play. Across the UK, outdoor play has halved within a generation. A third of children aged 7 to 12 no longer play outside after school, and one in five do not play outside even at weekends. Play spaces have diminished, with hundreds of playgrounds closing in the last decade and many children no longer living within walking distance of a safe play area. School playtime has also been squeezed, with primary pupils losing more than 20 minutes of daily break since the mid-1990s. Children’s time is increasingly taken up by screens, structured activities, traffic-related safety concerns and shrinking green spaces.

The challenge for all of us is to create environments where play and reading are not squeezed into the margins, but woven into the fabric of daily life. This might mean reshaping routines at home: placing books in every room so stories become part of the landscape, leaving open-ended toys within reach or carving out small, protected pockets of time where nothing is scheduled and imagination can take the lead.

It might also mean modelling curiosity ourselves: sharing what we are reading, building alongside our children and showing them what it looks like to value creativity and rest as much as achievement.

When adults champion story, play and exploration, we show children that creativity, curiosity and rest are as valuable as any academic milestone. Every time we set out a book, join a game or make space for unstructured play, we lay another building block in a child’s confidence, resilience and joy. That is how brilliance is built: not through pressure or perfection, but through the everyday acts of playing, imagining and wondering together.