Hi James, Hi everyone. To support your interest in this very important area there will be a live Q & A at 19:00pm till 20:00pm on the 23rd October 2023. This will be an opportunity to find out more about our Play Phase approach and also pose any questions, feedback or observations you might have about the module and our philosophy around the development of our 4-6 year old children.

I look forward to seeing your questions and I will do my best to answer them fully.

Cheers

Pete

The FA's new Play Phase initiative is designed to inform and more importantly, support, all grassroots teams and clubs that recruit young children aged 4 and 5 years. Placing the child at the centre means that the environment is conducive to the holistic development of all children and the newly designed Play Framework gives the adults organising the activities a really useful framework to consider in order to work across all areas of development. The activities will ensure that a child's social, physical and psychological development, as well as their sporting development, forms part of the actual activities and how they are structured and delivered. It is a really exciting initiative in a world where play is now being recognised as so important for the health and well-being of everyone, young or old.

Bill Gates has recently endorsed the importance of play and the scientific community has long since lauded its importance and how play can lead to more success and happiness in your life. These headlines might grab the attention of everyone but underlying them is how important PLAY is to all of us. The FA's new Play Phase initiative aims to create an environment for play where children are active participants and contributors to how the environment evolves and grows placing the children at the centre. Through a whole series of fun, yet challenging activities, the adults involved support the children as they explore and experiment with their developing skill sets in the areas of language development, thinking, problem solving, collaborating and many more. The FA s leading the way with this new initiative and we want the whole football community to embrace it and make it part of their overall provision. Best thing about it? It will help to develop more and more young children who love football and who enjoy being active with their friends.

When young children choose football at the very beginning of their sporting journey we are duty bound to provide them with the best and most appropriate introduction we can. If we get it right then we not only give them a great chance to become more skilful at playing sport but we may also be helping them make the choice to stay fit, healthy and active for the rest of their lives. This was the starting point for the FA's new Play Phase initiative and through its collaboration with CREC (The Centre for Research in Early Childhood) it has produced an informative, well resourced and totally appropriate introduction for children who want to try football for the first time at 4 or 5 years of age.

Happy, motivated and creative children who love football and who love being active with friends.

The Play Phase is an exciting new way to introduce young children to sport and being active. The adults involved are called "Captains of Play" as this new approach wants to recruit and inspire a new generation of people of all ages who are great at providing a vibrant, enjoyable and supportive environment for children (not to say our football coaches can't). There is much less formal coaching so it may not look like your traditional coaching session but it will be packed with lots of activities that challenge the children in all areas of development from, running, jumping and throwing to problem solving and working together. Play is at the centre so expect to see lots of happy smiling faces as children explore and experiment with lots of different objects in lots of different ways cheered on by our Captains of Play.

Thanks for everyone that took the time to look into our Q&A session tonight. It was disappointing that we couldn't get some dialogue going but it is early days for the FA's Play Phase and I will always be available to answer your queries as and when they arise so hopefully we can chat and make sure we get it right for our youngest children soon.

Best wishes

Pete

Thanks for everyone that took the time to look into our Q&A session tonight. It was disappointing that we couldn't get some dialogue going but it is early days for the FA's Play Phase and I will always be available to answer your queries as and when they arise so hopefully we can chat and make sure we get it right for our youngest children soon.

Best wishes

Pete

Great stuff, thank you! I think it's very easy for others to dismiss this as a fad or impractical because of adults' own experience of learning as children and the ingrained expectations to replicate that experience as adults. But what I feel often is not apparent to others is what huge gains there have been in learning science in recent decades and so much growth in understanding opportunities to support learning at different ages. Play is not frivolous; it's actually how children make sense of their world. 

Joshua, I believe that when we bring into the public psyche the importance of play for all of us (never mind the importance to our young children) then the FA's Play Phase will be seen as a governing body trying to protect not just the game but the health and well-being of everyone young child that comes into contact with it. Thanks for your comments, they are much appreciated. Pete