Views & Opinion What exactly is play for? Comment by Alicia Blanco-Bayo, Early Years teacher at Kirkham Grammar School
As we meet the parents of today who are guiding the children who will be the adults of tomorrow, we encounter new interpretations of the concept of play in today’s world. Play can be seen as an activity, not necessarily structured, that allows the child to remain occupied through enjoyment. As simple as this definition may sound, for a great number of parents, that is simply what play is. However, and as a number of researchers have argued over centuries, play goes beyond what we see on the surface. There is in fact a much deeper message underneath.
Let’s start the journey through play as we look at the individual child as a unique being, a being in need of a nurturing environment that can offer a variety of thought-provoking opportunities. It is by defining it as such, that the necessity of play can be seen as a series of needs.
Sense of curiosity
When children first acquire control of their bodies, they enter the world of movement and so they begin to explore the world around them. It is at this point that a child’s sense of curiosity commences and, by experimenting with objects, images and people, that they have their initial
life experiences. This simple explanation of how we, as human beings, begin our exposure to the world clearly defines the fact that it is through hands-on experiences that we learn to become members of society.
From that, we see that it is up to the grown- up who oversees the development of a child to enable the environment through positive relationships and experiences. As stated in DfES 2007, “Play underpins all development and learning for young children… and it is through play that they develop intellectually, creatively, physically, socially and emotionally.” It is, therefore, the people who make the environment a place for children to flourish who must facilitate purposeful play.
Traditional role-play
If we analyse a traditional role-play activity, we can certainly see how fundamental the link is between the real world and what the child is experiencing. When a child pretends to be an adult and playfully acts out how to do the ironing, he or she is simply imitating an action. The child sees that doing the ironing is part of what goes on in the grown-up world and the thought of being able to do what grown-ups do is so exciting in the eyes of a young child.
As the actions carried out by adults are observed by a child and then imitated, the child goes through an amazing learning process that benefits the development of many areas. Socially and emotionally, the child is demonstrating that they have been made to feel secure around adults who do ironing as a task which is part of everyday life. Physically, the coordination needed to use an iron and hold the item of clothing onto the ironing board is a skill that requires the child to have observed an adult do the ironing. Intellectually and creatively, the fact that during pretend play the child has thought that some of the clothes needed to be ironed, shows how this particular action is an obvious action within the home environment. There will also be children who have not experienced this before, but will observe the children who have and copy those actions so that they can play a part in the pretend world around them.
Enabling environments so children have time to pretend play will promote the development of basic skills as children mime the actions of others and show curiosity about what people around them do in a variety of scenarios.
If all this can be developed through play, why not use it as a strategy to develop many other skills?
Shared Parental Leave Comment by Jessica Waterlow, associate at national law firm Weightmans LLP
Shared Parental Leave is available for parents of babies born (or adopted) from 5 April 2015. It offers both parents who qualify greater flexibility in the way in which leave is taken in the child’s first year (since placement for adoption).
The mother can take shared parental leave in a number of separate blocks interspersed by periods back at work and she can ‘share’ her 50 weeks statutory non-compulsory maternity leave (and 37 of her weeks’ of statutory maternity pay) with the father in a way that suits the family’s caring needs and both parents’ careers and finances.
Financial implications
As with maternity pay, at least 92% of statutory shared parental can be claimed back from HMRC.
The more significant cost is where the employer decides to enhance shared parental pay. Many employers, including some in the education sector, are choosing not to enhance shared parental pay at the outset and committing to reviewing their policy if a test
case indicates that this would be unlawful sex discrimination.
Employers may save on maternity cover by deciding not to ‘back-fill’ posts with temporary cover where mothers who take their maternity leave in blocks of less than 6 months. There will be additional costs for employers of fathers or partners who take shared parental leave. There is a common misunderstanding that an employer will have to pay shared parental pay to the father or partner of their employee employed elsewhere. Employers only have to make payments for their own employees, under the terms of their own schemes e.g. if the mother is employed at School A, which enhances statutory parental pay and the father is employed by School B, which does not, the father will be paid statutory parental pay by School B.
Practical implications
The system of employee notices is complicated and the employer will have to process large amounts of information to ensure that statutory shared parental pay is processed
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correctly. Whilst the BIS guidance states that employers are not expected to check information with the spouse’s employer, it is anticipated that many will want to do so, to ensure all the records and calculations are correct.
Another common misconception is that requests for several blocks of leave are at the employer’s discretion because they are classed as “discontinuous leave”. The employer is bound to accept up to three requests for “continuous leave,” which require at least 8 weeks’ notice and can be made throughout the first year of the birth (or placement). It is only a request that incorporates both the blocks of leave and blocks of work that are classed as “discontinuous” and are subject to the two week period of negotiation between the employer and employee, if not agreed. Some HR practitioners are concerned that some teachers will apply to take shared parental leave during term time and return to work during the holidays. To reduce uncertainty, employers should meet with the employee as soon as possible to discuss the options.
March 2015
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