Gabija is setting up a toy meerkat in her classroom’s sand tray - which has small rocks, a fabric cactus plant and tiny deckchairs in it - ready to draw a picture.

Her classroom at Castle Hill Infant School, Ipswich, also has a snack station, writing and reading areas, and outside is a water play area alongside gym equipment.

So far, so early years. But Gabija is not in Reception - she is in Year 2, and she is a “guinea pig” in an experiment being run with Castle Hill Junior School that is designed to take elements of the EYFS (early years foundation stage) play-based curriculum all the way through to Year 6.

“We had children doing brilliantly in early years,” Gemma Andrews, who heads both schools, says. “And we were almost de-skilling them as they went through school.”

Sherise Daly, deputy head and early years specialist, adds: “Our most resilient children were aged 4 and 5. We looked at Year 6 and saw children giving up so easily for fear they would fail, and thought: how is this going so wrong?

“But when you step back and see people planning an art lesson in which you are literally handing a child a paintbrush and saying which paint they will be using - you can see how, as teachers, we are taking that independence away. So we looked at how to start giving that independence back, and that is how child-initiated learning came in.”

It feels like a brave decision in the current climate, where many heads report pressure to make teaching, even in Reception, more formal.

But Andrews wouldn’t say she was brave, just logical.

When she arrived in summer 2017, it had been three years since the junior school had gone into special measures, been closed and reopened as an academy under a joint headteacher with the infant school (which was rated “outstanding”), and it was still struggling.

“They had tried to formalise things and it wasn’t working,” she explains. “Behaviour was awful; there was even an isolation room. In the infants, there were highly engaged children. But in Year 5, children were waiting in a queue to see the teacher. It was like walking back in time.”

Year 1 and Year 2 classes at the school now resemble Reception, with different learning areas, and there are plans to take age-appropriate elements through into key stage 2.

There is still direct teaching - 30-minute phonics sessions every day, for example - but child-initiated activities mean children then consolidate and deepen their learning further, starting with the challenges set up in each area. So rather than just reading and writing about the book Meerkat Mail, they can model, paint or make a video about it using an iPad.

The changes had had a “noticeable effect on driving improvement”, and both behaviour and attendance had improved, Ofsted inspectors said in September 2017.

It is a promising start. But is using more play-based learning throughout primary just a drastic last-ditch option for a school in trouble? Or could this way of working be considered elsewhere?

“It does require a leap of faith,” Ruth Swailes, an independent education consultant, says. She has worked with around 10 schools this year that have started to move this way - but says there is a psychological hurdle to overcome first.

“There is the feeling that if you don’t do it through direct teaching, how can you know that they’ve learned it?” she says.

“But I say: how can you know they’ve learned it anyway? Because as a teacher I’ve taught lessons and then found they’ve not been learned. I think we hold this type of learning to a higher level of accountability than direct teaching.”

Perhaps the misgivings about play-based learning are understandable when looking at the contrast between how children are learning at age 4 and at age 11.

In the typical primary classroom, children will sit on chairs at tables, listen to the teacher and write in their books. Equipment and resources for more hands-on lessons like art, design and technology or science are stored until the teacher brings them out.

But the environment in Reception is quite different. There will be time during the day when children are all together, sitting on the carpet to learn phonics.

But for most of the time, the resources that teachers have gathered to inspire children’s learning are either set out or easily accessible. And four- and five-year-old children can choose whether they play in the corner, which is set up as a doctors’ surgery with a stethoscope and prescription pads, or go outside to trek toy polar bears across ice set up in a tray.

“Play is essential for children’s development, building their confidence as they learn to explore, to think about problems, and relate to others,” states the EYFS framework, which sets out the principles that guide teaching in the Reception year.

And so, say schools like Castle Hill, if play is essential at age 5, why not at 6? When should we draw the line and say children are now done with building confidence, thinking about problems or relating to others?

At Great Denham Primary in Bedford, those early-years principles of children being hands-on, active participants in learning are embedded all the way to Year 6.

The school was set up seven years ago and its vision document promises to “give children back their childhood” and “prepares children for life and not for a life of tests”.

Headteacher Denise Burgess was involved in the design of the school, where each classroom has its own outdoor learning area, and says she was inspired by the type of education on offer in Iceland and Denmark.

“This is my second headship and a golden opportunity to challenge the status quo,” Burgess says. “In previous schools, I had seen children being so independent in early years, so engaged because they were learning by doing and through practical, real-life experiences. I wanted to transfer that throughout the school.”

Burgess estimates that children spend about 40 per cent of their time in traditional teacher-directed lessons and about 60 per cent in child-led learning, as is common in early years, with the balance reversing in Year 6 as the Sats approach.

Great Denham has been set up with an early-years approach in mind, but Swailes says that, for many schools, the change is prompted by a wish to make the transition to Year 1 easier for Reception children.

In November 2017, Ofsted’s Bold Beginnings report pointed out that the transition between Reception and Year 1 had become difficult since 2014 because the goals for Reception-aged children “were not aligned with the now-increased expectations of the national curriculum”.

The controversial report has been seen as a call for more formal learning in Reception. But Helen Bilton, professor of outdoor learning at the University of Reading, says it may be that the emphasis on formality has made people think twice.

“Of course you have to prepare children for the next stage, but doing it earlier, earlier and earlier is not going to help them,” she says. “There is a disconnect between what the government sees as improving outcomes and what people see as the proper treatment of children. There is a definite kickback.”

Allenton Community Primary, in Derby, keeps some elements of early-years pedagogy right up to Year 6. “I’ve always found EYFS inspirational,” says executive head Jon Fordham, who was once a Reception teacher. All pupils in the school will sit and listen to teachers but then choose how to demonstrate what they have learned.

So their understanding of the life cycle of a butterfly, for example, is not assessed through an annotated worksheet but through their writing, art or Lego brick model.

And reflecting on their learning, creating something and talking about it - to each other and to their teacher, something common in Reception - provides these pupils with an “emotional hook” which in turn embeds learning and improves vocabulary.

But as well as moving some early-years practices up the school, Fordham is introducing some Year 1 practices earlier than he once would have done.

“We do acknowledge Bold Beginnings,” Fordham says. “So as it gets towards the second half of the summer term, there are more tables and chairs in Reception and more sitting down and working - but this is not for all pupils, only for those who are ready.”

He thinks this approach is fairer on pupils than putting all the onus of transition on Year 1 teachers - and expecting them to mirror the EYFS curriculum in a small classroom.

So using early-years practice to inspire teaching for older pupils is being done in different ways - but all those who have done it advise that it will take time and careful planning.

“Working this way is not easy,” says Joanna Baxendale, assistant headteacher at St John’s CE primary school in Bradford. “The amount of planning and time it takes to maintain the provision is substantial.”

But, she says, it helps children flourish.

Test scores are important, but heads report that a playful approach seems to have wider benefits: a positive impact on behaviour and even children’s mental health.

However, the day when pupils will have to cope with a far more traditional learning style cannot be put off forever.

Burgess says this is the main worry parents have about their approach.

But she points out that while the style of learning at Great Denham may seem at odds with secondary teaching, it is all about preparing pupils to have confidence in their ability to tackle new situations.

“Our vision is about primary education,” Burgess says. “I believe there is enough time for sitting at desks doing more traditional learning later. There are challenges [in transition to secondary] - but what underpins our curriculum is resilience, independence and teamwork.”

Helen Ward is a reporter at Tes. She tweets @teshelen

This article originally appeared in the 28 June 2019 issue under the headline “Don’t press stop on play”