Playful School – Free Play in Early Childhood Education Project
Playful School – Free Play in Early Childhood Education Project is a service model to promote quality free play in kindergarten settings. The Kindergarten Education Curriculum Guide (2017) suggests that “half-day and full-day kindergartens should arrange no less than 30 and 50 minutes every day respectively for children to participate in free play.” In light of this, Playful School – Free Play in Early Childhood Education Project was launched in 2019 to provide training to kindergarten teachers to equip them with skills and knowledge to conduct quality free play sessions and create free play environment and change parents’ perception on play.
Led by Playright Children’s Play Association, Playful School – Free Play in Early Childhood Education Project has engaged eight kindergartens from 2019 – 2020. Project components include (1) providing professional training and on-site support to teachers to conduct free play, (2) delivering parent education sessions to promote the concept of free play to parents, (3) conducting a seminar on free play best practices to share on local and overseas successful examples, (4) setting up Playful School Alliance to enable mutual learning among kindergartens, and (5) establishing an e-platform for information and teaching materials.
Funding amount : $1.1M