Play & Learning in Schools & Early Education

Early Years Library

This project is developing a toolkit to support early education and childcare settings to use the Early Years Library (EYL). The EYL describes activities that can be used by early years practitioners in their everyday practice to support children's cognitive and social-emotional development.

Teaching professionals Reflecting on Agency in Learning (TRAIL)

Teaching assistants supporting children’s agency

Play, dialogic teaching and executive functions in early primary school

Classroom contexts and children’s involvement in their learning

Students sat on the carpet with their teacher telling a story using puppets

Play in early teaching: The PlayBack programme

Our PlayBack programme uses videos of teachers and children playing in everyday situations to boost the child-teacher bond.

School children and their teacher doing a lesson with bendy toys

Play for hands-on learning: Research reviews

We've carried out extensive literature reviews to explore how playful teaching approaches may be linked to children's learning.