Introducing Protect Play: My Mummy Teacher's Campaign for Play Based Learning
Make Play and Continuous Provision statutory in England's Key Stage 1 Curriculum
How did the petition start?
At 11:20pm, in my PJ's, on my laptop, i decided that enough was enough...
It breaks my heart that our education system in England is failing so many.
It breaks my heart that young children are subjected to testing at the loss of play.
It breaks my heart that there is a lack of funding for what our school needs.
I see children losing their love of learning. I see children who just need to move more in the classroom. I see children who become a shell of who they were. But I know the solution...
Play is the solution!
Developmentally appropriate practise and curriculum is the solution!
Meeting children where they are are, not where the world expects them to be...
Continuous Provision until the end of Year 2 for ALL children is the solution.
Treating children as children and not robots to conform is the solution
So i started the petition...
What is the petition?
Revise statutory guidance for KS1 to make play based pedagogy a core part of the Key Stage One National Curriculum, extending the best practice that we see in Early Years to ensure all Key Stage One children continue to have a developmentally appropriate play based approach to their learning.
We have just passed the 100,000 signature mark which is the requirement to get the petition considered for debate in Parliament. But let's keep pushing, we have until 3rd January 2026 to get our voices heard and to show the volume of how many of us back this and want to give our children what they deserve!
The Government's initial response
The government were required to send a response at 10,000 signatures. Did it hit the mark... FAR FROM IT! It showed how this requires further response. See their response below:
"The Department is working to make sure that all children and young people have access to a variety of enrichment opportunities at school, as an important part of our mission to break down barriers to opportunity. For some schools, these opportunities may be used to encourage children and young people to play.
We recognise that play is critical to children’s wellbeing and development, as highlighted in the Centre for Young Lives’ Everything to Play For report. This is reflected in the Early Years Foundation Stage (EYFS) statutory framework, which is clear that play is essential for children’s learning and development. The EYFS emphasises the importance of creating opportunities for indoor and outdoor play, and enabling environments and cultures for high-quality play.
Our expectation is for schools to organise the school day and school week in the best interests of their pupil cohort, to both provide them with a full time education suitable to their age, aptitude and ability, and to provide opportunities for schools to incorporate time for play and other activities.
We recognise the current key stage 1 curriculum requires reform. This is why the Government established an independent Curriculum and Assessment Review, to look into issues, such as this, and make recommendations to improve the curriculum for children. The Review Group is currently looking across the existing national curriculum and statutory assessment system, to ensure they meet the needs of young people in your area and across England.
The Review’s final report and recommendations will be published in autumn, at which point the Government will be in a position to consider any changes to the curriculum. The Government will consult with education experts, teachers, and parents to ensure the very best for children in England."
Department for Education
Addressing Government Misconceptions
Recent government responses have suggested that play “belongs in break times or enrichment,” rather than in lessons. This is a misconception. Play is not just recreation. It is a recognised pedagogical approach, backed by decades of research and already embedded in the Early Years Foundation Stage. This highlights a misunderstanding that there are many types of play, teacher roles and methods of implementation that go far beyond unstructured free play. Importantly, play-based pedagogy is already statutory in Wales and Scotland.
· In Wales, the Curriculum for Wales 2022 makes play a statutory part of learning, with a strong emphasis on child-led exploration in the early years and lower primary.
· In Scotland, the Curriculum for Excellence embeds play-based learning in the early level, which includes the first years of primary school. The Scottish Government has also issued clear guidance for schools to extend play-based approaches into Primary 1 and 2.
England is now falling behind the other nations. This creates inconsistency and disadvantages English children compared to their peers elsewhere in the UK.
Treating play as “break time” inevitably reduces provision, as schools under pressure to raise test scores push play aside in favour of formal instruction. In fact, many authors have documented a decline in play-based approaches in the UK (and US) in recent decades (Jarvis 2009; Stokes 2019; Bassok et al., 2016). This reduction has coincided with an increase in stress, behavioural issues, and disengagement among young learners.
If we want to give children the best possible start in life, we must not relegate play to the playground. We must recognise it as a core pedagogy in the early years of school, as our neighbours in Wales and Scotland already do.
What does research say?
We have a Research Case for Play-based
Learning in Key Stage 1 which has been
created for Educators & Parents, which is available for you to rdownload which offers a lot more scientific evidence and research which strengthens our fight to get learning through play asa part of our KS1 curriculum
What do the papers say?
Take a look! Here we are in The Guardian newspaper on the 29th October 2025:
- Do we really expect five-year-olds to sit at desks? I want a school that understands play is learning
Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/oct/29/school-play-learning-england-children
How you can help
Are you feeling empowered by signing Ruth's petition and feeling empowered to take it 1 step further? Do you want to make sure that the government know that we are serious about wanting to make changes to our educational system? Why not write a letter to you local MP using the template below! A big Thank You to Keeley Johnson for helping with the template! I'm excited for this petition to be debated in Parliament. Thank you so much for driving it forward.Follow the steps below:
Step 1
Post your postcode into writetothem.com
Step 2
Scroll down and find your Member of Parliament.
Step 3
Write to your MP. You can use our template letter below as a template or some inspiration.
Step 4
Fill out your details in the boxes and press send.
You have done a great thing, give yourself a big pat on the back!
If you need some support and guidance with appropriate language to use when writing to you MP, please use the link below to Key Language guide!
Events by MMT to empower you
Please see below the list of current events that we have to enable to you feel empowered about learning through play
Work with me
If you’d like to work with me, click below to get in touch today. We can then have a friendly chat about your needs and work in collaboration to see how I can support and enhance your event or company. Bespoke packages are available.
Speaking topics include but are not limited to:
• The power of play!
• How play can support children’s mental health and well-being.
"An interesting session at the NQT / ITT event by the fantastic Ruth Lue-Quee. Very informative and useful for our trainees and NQTS."
Lisa Holdridge - National Education Union
"Ruth put together some fantastic videos for us at EasyRead Time Teacher.She did a review/demo of our clocks and the teaching system that goes with them and made it engaging, easy to understand and was very professional. I wouldn’t hesitate to work with Ruth again – great job!"
Eve Horne - EasyRead Time Teacher Ltd