Can I Go and Play Now?: Rethinking the Early Years

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Wow, but it’s true. It is. It’s like a it’s it’s like a, uh, it’s like a rebirth. It is like a rebirth. His two education books ‘Can I Go And Play Now?’ and ‘School and the Magic’ of Children’ have attracted much attention with their call for education to embrace childhood and the ‘echoes of play’.

Greg Bottrill:Yeah, so I tend to, um, I, I tend to be invited into schools, go and work directly with, with teams excitingly increasingly beyond early years as well, which is really good. Um, that, that really makes me happy when I get to work with key stage one, because it means that schools are really trying to explore the joy of learning. Um, but yeah, so I do conferences as well. Um, but I also work with some local authorities along the way, um, just to kind of support them in their work. Because the children want to be there. You know, I have children and I’m, you know, I’m, I’m not, um, you know, I’m not the perfect teacher. I’m really not. I’d like, I want to become the perfect teacher. That’s what I want to be. But, you know, I have children that did not want to go home at the weekend because they love school so much. Greg Bottrill:w tell me more. So the idea was you create a landscape of the imagination with the children. So three thinking, talking, making, building it’s, it’s all my beliefs to begin with. You just tell the children that adventure Island has popped up outside. Not kind of, if you will, for, can you imagine how exciting it is to know that adventure islands popped up?Pooky Knightsmith:Tell me about play school TV. So I’ve, I’ve, I’ve had, I’ve had a bit of a look at it and it looks imagery. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And you know, and hopefully this, this coming year, as, you know, touch wood, the world begins to open up in whatever way it does. I can begin to kind of get out and you know, it’s not about trying to show people they’re doing something wrong. It’s not that I’m doing this.

If you’re, if you’re sat at a table doing a worksheet, who are you doing it for? You’re doing it for the teacher children. Aren’t stupid. They know they’re doing it for the teacher. Yeah. Whereas if you’re on adventure Island or in play, who are you doing it for yourself? And instantly you’re connected to what you’re doing.So the two work together. So like Coldplay is, is like you go into play and then at moments, children come to you as well, but you only come to you because at that moment, you’ve got something magic to show them whether it be a story, whether it be something to do with phonics, whether it’s, you know, something amazing about number, um, and all the time in the play.

And they have to reflect on who they are, because this is, this is about, I believe it’s about becoming a really authentic educator because you teaching right out of here. And where are you? Where are my shortcomings? I’ve got, probably ask my friends. Um, well, um, what am I shortcomings? Probably in that often I have been in certain areas and I’ve not valued them. Greg Bottrill:trusting in ourselves. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. It’s about, it’s about that. Openness to letting go, just letting go and letting go.Greg Bottrill:Yeah, absolutely. No, absolutely. And it’s kind of like what we genuinely value within our education system. These are the big, you know, these are eternal questions that will ever, you know, That’s gone on for years. And the fact that have gone on for years is ultimately to the shame of our, our education system. And if you’ve watched play school TV, you’ll have met some of them along the way. Um, there are certain characters that live on adventure Island. And so it goes from NASA, the children then go on an adventure when they go outside. And there’s a whole host of imaginary characters. It’s a little bit like the bridge to Terabithia if you’ve ever read that or, or watch the film. Um, in my subscription, uh, mentor group, we’ve talked about event, about play projects with them. And the people in that group were just like, Oh my goodness, this is it. So I know they, I mean, they absolutely can work and they’re not, they’re not difficult to do. Just takes the step of faith to trust children that they can direct their own learning.

Based around the concepts of joy and co-playing, Adventure Island is a place that you and the children will want to return to again and again. Not only that, it’s where parenting and the community beyond the school gate can come to life too – the Island is for everyone!

About the organiser

Yeah. Like lots of a view in the woods and your lovely dogs, Bobby and epi having, having a lot of fun. And yet what we do is we create these systems like book and books, which if you’ve got your own children of the most dullest thing in the world, you know, I can’t, you know, cause cause teachers don’t read book bound books, the children at the end of the day, Why don’t they, because they know they’re boring. Pooky Knightsmith:loves it. Have you had any, um, sort of moments where someone’s kind of come across, you talking to your dogs on your phone in the woods? So I am I, as the adult I also joined into, I don’t just stand in the room, commanding children to tidy up. Yeah, we do it together. It’s the idea of like, uh, let’s let us do it together so that the children see that I’m no different to them. I’m not above them, I’m taller, but I’m not, you know, and I’ve got a bit more knowledge.