Play 

Learning Through Play

At Stobhill Primary we place importance on Play, particularly in Primary 1, 2 and 3. Play is a vital part of our pupils’ learning and as a team we are ever expanding our knowledge and skills of learning through Play. 


Why do we Play at Stobhill Primary?

As a school who is on our Rights Respecting School journey, we respect our learners’ Right to Play as affirmed in Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (1990), 

‘Every child has the right to relax, play and take part in a wide range of cultural and artistic activities.’


Midlothian is committed to establishing learning through Play in schools and promotes this as necessary for effective achievement of the Curriculum for Excellence. The council have adopted the motto, ‘Right to Play the Midlothian Way’. 


Play is integral to children’s learning and the Scottish Government ‘want Scotland to be the best place to grow up. A nation which values play as a life-enhancing daily experience for all our children and young people; in their homes, nurseries, schools and communities.’


There is a vast amount of existing and ever developing research about the importance of Play in education. Friedrich Froebel made clear,

Play is the highest expression of human development in childhood.

At Stobhill we continue to take inspiration from the work of Froebel, as we develop our approach to learning through Play.


What are the benefits of Play for our learners?


Within Primary 1, 2 and 3 our learners have daily opportunities to be a part of these life enhancing experiences. Through this they are developing their:




Core Provisions


As a school we our play areas are:




As a staff we prioritise Literacy and Numeracy opportunities for learning when planning for each of these Play areas. For example, activities may involve a focus such as ‘sound recognition, letter formation, tricky word spelling, number recognition, number formation, number ordering, adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing’. These activities depend upon the existing understanding and next steps of our learners. We aim to inspire our learners to follow their interests whilst enhancing their own development by providing resources and fostering interactions with our learners. The learners are involved in the planning process, they are given the chance to share their desires for their play areas with the staff. Teachers will plan responsively based on observations and children’s ideas, linking these to the Experiences and Outcomes within CfE. They will also provide resources and stimuli linked to Seasons and Festivals. This will allow responsive learning to be interwoven with the backdrop of seasonal planning. 



What kind of resources do we use at Stobhill Primary?

Research has shown that open-ended materials are particularly effective in promoting productive play.  These materials encourage more imaginative and creative use of the resources to create a wider range of possible play scenarios. Where possible, we use open-ended materials to maximise creativity for example; using these instead of plastic food in the home corner and character costumes, lengths of materials, cloaks and scarves are used as dressing up outfits.


Documentation of Learning

It is important to record the learning process children engage in through Play. This recording, also known as ‘documentation’, involves capturing the learning that is taking place, as it is happening, recording exactly what is seen. These observations may be narrative (planned) or spontaneous (in the moment). We document what we can see the learner can do, know and how well they know.