Nursery World - All work, no play

I was delighted to see so much information about schemas in Nursery World ('All About Schemas', 6 June). It was inspiring and exciting to read about an approach to education that does not try to drum concepts into children, but provides opportunities for them to construct concepts for themselves. The writers obviously value play as the main form of education in pre-school. This should go without saying, now that we have a Foundation Stage curriculum that is play-based. However, it is still common to observe children in pre-school settings being taken away from their play activities to 'do their work'.

The writers obviously value play as the main form of education in pre-school. This should go without saying, now that we have a Foundation Stage curriculum that is play-based. However, it is still common to observe children in pre-school settings being taken away from their play activities to 'do their work'.

Ironically, the 'work' children are asked to do in pre-school is so much less complex and advanced than their play. Recently I saw a child in a pre-school being led away from an extended, child-initiated, co-operative role-play activity involving maps the children had made themselves, guidebooks they had produced, tickets, several forms of transport and a variety of characters. The 'work' he was required to do involved drawing lines between pictures of animals and the foods they ate. I could see he was close to tears as the adult scolded him for what she saw as laziness.

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