Welcome to The PLAYlist - April 2025 🎉🌼

Your Guide To All Of The Amazing Stuff On The PLAYlist This April!

🌼 Welcome to April! 🌼

Hello, lovely PLAY People!

I hope this finds you with at least one cup of tea down and a biscuit not too far away (Tunnocks Caramel Wafer for me!). Can you believe it’s April already? Here in the UK, there’s blossom on the trees, lambs in the fields and a ton of frogspawn in my pond!

Along with Spring comes a fresh batch of PLAYlist goodness to help you feel supported, inspired, and ready to dig a bit deeper into your provision.

This month, we’ve got a gorgeous mix of new life, growth, good struggle, and a big old look at blocks and construction. So, whether you’re a free subscriber or one of our paid supporters, there’s loads coming your way.

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🌱 FOR OUR FREE SUBSCRIBERS

You’re getting a cracking roster – filled with really good content for you this month that’s all about growth, change, and powerful learning through play.

🚸 Transition to Year One by Dr Alistair Bryce-Clegg - click HERE

Oh yes, it’s that time of year again. There’s nothing quite like the collective EYFS intake of breath when someone mentions transition! But it doesn’t have to be scary – for the children or the adults. This article gives practical advice on what a good transition might look like, how to advocate for continuity of approach, and what to do when you feel pressure to ‘formalise’ too soon. I’ll also be linking to our training and including a cheeky discount code for those who want more.

✍️ Guest Article by Dr Stella Louis – Learning Through Struggle - Click HERE

We are so excited about this one. Stella brings her wisdom and warmth to a topic that’s close to my heart – why struggle is not only OK but actually necessary. She unpicks how adults can support productive struggle in play and why this is crucial for developing resilience, creativity, and independence. If you’ve ever wanted to know how to not rescue too soon – this one’s for you.

📚 Booklist – Growth and New Life - Click HERE

This list is full of thoughtful, beautifully chosen texts to support conversations around growing, changing, and noticing the world around us coming to life again. There’s something here for all age groups – and some real treasures to spark that lovely cross-curricular magic we love.

🔍 OP&L – Play Observation Format - Click HERE

OP&L has created a format to help you capture the richness of play in a way that’s meaningful, manageable, and actually helpful for planning next steps. Simple, powerful, and totally free.

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💡 FOR OUR PAID SUBSCRIBERS

For those of you who are supporting The PLAYlist with a subscription – thank you. You’re helping us to keep high-quality, developmentally appropriate content flowing.

🧱 Online Training – Common Play Behaviours in Blocks and Construction - Click HERE

This is one of my favourite areas of continuous provision – blocks are just endlessly rich in possibility. In this session, we’ll explore why construction is more than just building towers, how block play supports every area of development, and how you can recognise and respond to common play behaviours. We’ll look at key schemas, problem-solving, social negotiation, mathematical thinking – all that juicy stuff.
The training will be going live soon – we’re just finishing up the thumbnail and attaching the accompanying Common Play Behaviours document to make it extra useful.

✍️ Article – Are Writing Tables a Good Idea? by Dr Alistair Bryce-Clegg - Click HERE

Now this one might ruffle a few feathers (in the best way). I’ll be unpicking the pros and cons of having a specific ‘writing table’ in your provision. Is it helpful? Is it a bit tokenistic? What might we be missing? It’s not about throwing everything out – it’s about thinking deeply about why we do what we do, and how to ensure writing is purposeful, meaningful, and – yes – playful.

🌍 10 Practitioner Written Activities Available to Download NOW – Growth / Our World - Click HERE

Need some tried-and-tested ideas to sprinkle into your provision? These ten activities are all themed around growth, sustainability, and our interconnectedness with nature. Perfect for this time of year when the world is waking up and everything’s growing like mad – including our children!

📄 Common Play Behaviours Download – Blocks and Construction - Click HERE

This downloadable document is packed with examples of common play behaviours linked to block and construction play. It’s designed to help practitioners see what’s happening in play more clearly – so we can extend it meaningfully rather than stifle or interrupt it.

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💬 And Finally…

As always, a huge THANK YOU for being part of this growing, thoughtful, playful community. We know the world of early years can sometimes feel like a whirlwind of expectations, demands, and changing goalposts – but we are stronger together. Whether you’re reading this at the end of a long day with a pile of post-it notes in your pocket, or catching up with your team over a staffroom brew, just know you are seen, valued, and appreciated.

Here’s to muddy wellies, worm hunts, den building, and all the beautiful learning that happens when we step back and let children lead the way!

Alistair