Government urged to restore school break times as more children miss out on play

The Government is being urged to restore playtime in school amid concerns that play is being “squeezed out” of children’s lives.

An interim report by the Raising the Nation Play Commission inquiry has warned that children are spending less time playing and less time outdoors due to more “ distractions and demands”.

Screens and the online world are dominating children’s time at home, and school break times have shortened over the past three decades – and sometimes they have been “withheld”, the inquiry found.

The commission was launched by Paul Lindley, founder of organic baby food manufacturer Ella’s Kitchen, in partnership with the Centre for Young Lives think tank, which was co-founded by the former children’s commissioner for England, Baroness Anne Longfield.

The interim report has revealed a series of barriers to children’s opportunities to play, including: playground closures; more traffic; and a default use of no-ball-games signs in many communal spaces.

An analysis of surveys carried out in 1995, 2006, 2017 and 2021 – shared with the Play Commission – showed the significant decline in average total breaktime in minutes per week in England’s schools.

It found that children in Key Stage 1 – aged five to seven – enjoyed 23 minutes less breaktime a week on average compared to their peers in 1995.

The report said: “A curriculum with such a narrow emphasis on rote learning and examinations, reinforced by a highly pressurised accountability system, has led many schools and teachers to view breaktimes as nothing more than a loss of valuable teaching time which could be given over to further coverage of the curriculum’s content.”

It added that some schools “punitively withhold break times” from children for behavioural reasons.

The commission is calling on the Department for Education (DfE) to ringfence time in the school day for break times and lunchtimes, and issue guidance discouraging the punitive withdrawal of playtime.

Ofsted should include a measure of time to play in schools in its assessments to reward schools who value play highly, it added.

The report has also called for a review of the use of no-ball-games signs and a national campaign to encourage parents to play with their children as part of the drive to improve school readiness.

Baroness Longfield, executive chair of the Centre for Young Lives and former children’s commissioner for England, said: “Generations of children are now growing up spending less time playing, less time outside, less time with their friends, and more time inside, glued to phones and social media.

“Play is being squeezed out of their lives, and the consequences for their mental and physical health, and their development, are dire.

“I welcome the Government’s focus on widening opportunities for children and improving school readiness.

“This interim report puts forward positive, workable, evidence-based proposals to support those aims, including a cross-Government national play strategy for England that would boost those ambitions.”

Mr Lindley, chair of the Raising the Nation Play Commission, said: “An anti-play, no-ball-games culture has emerged.

“Hundreds of playgrounds have closed, half of all youth centres have gone, school playing fields have been sold.

“Our streets and public spaces feel less safe, and children are losing hours of play time at school every month.

“We can’t continue to watch as our children become increasingly unhealthy and unhappy.”

Pepe Di’Iasio, general secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders (ASCL), said: “Playtime has a very important role both inside and outside of school but schools are constantly having to juggle multiple pressures on the time that is available because they have to deliver a packed curriculum.”

He added: “If we want to create more time for play in schools then we have to balance this against all the other expectations we have of schools.”