Published letter in Sunday Herald Sun January 10, 2021

IN our 1950s kindergarten, our teacher always made fun an essential focus during the day, whether it was simply building castles in the sandpit with shovels and spades (how many were there?) or observing cocoons and the emerging caterpillars in the gum trees nearby.

Butterflies and birds were also on the curriculum, while at home my mother taught me to play with letters during Scrabble.

It is not surprising “really good learning looks like children are playing” as Early Childhood Australia chief executive Samantha Page stated, and it is this understanding that should be implemented across the education system. Undoubtedly, laying the groundwork in early childhood is integral in developing a love of learning, but play should underpin education at all levels.