Four essential points

Strategic leadership, professional learning and transitions are central to improving consistency

Strong leadership is needed to set expectations, use national practice guidance effectively, evaluate the impact of play pedagogy and support staff development. More consistent professional learning and stronger transitions from ELC to P1 are also needed to ensure that play-based learning builds effectively on children’s prior experiences.

Successful play pedagogy is characterised by purposeful learning environments, high-quality resources and skilled adult interactions

The strongest schools provide flexible, stimulating indoor and outdoor spaces with open-ended resources that support exploration, investigation and creativity. However, in some schools, environments, resources and skilled adult interactions do not yet provide enough challenge, appropriate progression or personalisation.

Children are most engaged when play pedagogy is embedded but achieving the right balance of learning experiences remains a challenge

Many children show high levels of engagement, independence and curiosity when play pedagogy is embedded in practice. However, children need a better balance between child-initiated, adult-initiated and adult-directed learning. 

Assessment of progress and attainment is an important area for improvement

In the most effective schools, assessment, including observation, is used well to assess progress, identify next steps and inform responsive planning. However, assessment practice does not yet consistently provide the depth of analysis needed to support appropriate progression in learning.