Creative Playtimes

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The importance of play in children’s creative development is an idea that keeps surfacing in the Creativity Collaborative’s [CC] work. At Welbeck Primary School in The Meadows, staff have been thinking hard about what happens at playtimes.

Kayleigh Weatherall, Welbeck’s assistant head, said “It came as a bit of a shock to me when I read that out of the 7 years children are in primary school, 1.4 years will be spent outside playing. That’s 20% of children’s time in school – the same amount of time they spend learning English or maths. We do a huge amount of planning for the English and maths but no real planning for play.” This has led Kayleigh and colleagues to focus on creative play as one of their year 3 CC projects.

Kayleigh began by talking to the children about playtime and how it could be improved. Not all children enjoyed playtimes. The emphasis was on ball games, especially football, but the children said they didn’t talk much when they were playing football. They found it hard to define play precisely and struggled to suggest ideas for games unrelated to sport.

Staff discussed what the children had said and researched ideas about play. They concluded that as adults in the school they should promote the value of play and nurture the play process.  They came up with some shared principles about why play matters. These principles include the contribution of play: to physical and emotional wellbeing, to enjoyment of school, to inclusion and to developing creativity, imagination and confidence. 

Based on these ideas, staff identified three aims for Welbeck’s Creative Play project:

- To nurture sporting, creative and imaginative skills at breaktime equally

- To provide varied opportunities for play

- To broaden opportunities for being physically active during breaks.

The transformation of playtimes started in January 2024. Children and adults worked together to identify and teach one another new (and old) games. What’s the time, Mr Wolf? became popular on the playground. Children devised scavenger hunts for one another. Skipping ropes, French skipping elastics, hula hoops, chalks and a parachute were made available at playtime. The school invested in outdoor table tennis equipment and a gazebo for chess and board games. On certain days of the week, the table tennis tables double as arts and crafts stations, with paper and felt tips and paints. On other days, there is an area for bike riding and scooters. Local businesses have been generous in their support. Two builders’ merchants have donated (and delivered) wooden pallets, old tyres, sand and cable drums. A greengrocery firm has given plastic crates. So Welbeck is now well equipped with den-building supplies.

Kayleigh is keen to stress that it’s not just a matter of resources – their planning for creative play is detailed and very practical. In terms of safety, the children are learning about assessing risks for themselves; supervisory staff are learning how best to support children in assessing these risks. In terms of citizenship, children are expected to look after things and help tidy them away. To ensure the balance they’re looking for between nurturing sporting and creative play, sports are allowed and encouraged in morning break but lunchtimes and afternoon break are reserved for other kinds of play. They’ve made a playtime timetable, to vary the equipment that’s available. And twenty year 5 and 6 pupils, easily spotted in their high-vis jackets, take it in turns to work as Play Leaders, encouraging game playing and making sure everyone is included.

Two months into the playground transformation project, Kayleigh feels things are going well. “The children are branching out in their play,” she says, “and sometimes they just get so much joy out of their games.” But there’s more to come… there are plans to experiment with playground music; to hold an INSET day on creative play for teachers, TAs and midday supervisors and to follow that with work in all of the classes on how the school can help children can make the most of those 1.4 years of playing…