Some countries are protecting a child's right to play — not Australia

The first time Renae Powell waved her eldest child through the primary school gates, she felt something was wrong. Because of teacher supervision requirements, play was outlawed before and after school. The kind of free-wheeling bliss "away from adults" that defined Powell's own childhood in the hours outside the classroom no longer existed.

Then her four-year-old son started to get in trouble for "basically moving his body", says Powell, a Brisbane-based early childhood educator. Lunchtime was short, and there was little movement during the day, she adds. Her view, so radically simple it perhaps sounds unhinged, was that her son and his classmates needed more play.

But a growing body of evidence backs her up. Children's play — usually defined as any child-led behaviour or activity without goals or set rules — has been shown to have benefits. "Unstructured" or "free" play can help develop emotional self-regulation, critical thinking, problem-solving and social skills. It's so fundamental that experts describe it as a developmental necessity, not an optional activity. And there are concerns that Australian children are playing less, especially outdoors.

Let the children play

Urban planning that doesn't prioritise children, increased traffic, parental safety concerns, screen time, more structured activities, and time-poor families are all affecting when and where children play, says Robyn Monro Miller, chief executive of Play Australia.

"By about the age of eight, less and less time is allocated to play and then by the time you're a 12-year-old, when you go into high school, it's not encouraged that you will play," Monro Miller says. "People don't see teenagers as children, and teenagers need time to play as well."

Play has been treated as an afterthought for too long, Monro Miller says. She is calling on governments to prioritise play, and has today released a report, funded through a Churchill Fellowship, which maps a pathway to implementing a national play strategy — something more countries are adopting. Such strategies embed a child's need to play across policy areas such as health, planning, transport, and education.

"Play is not reflected in any national government health policy at the moment, and we know the research is just so solid around the benefits of play for children's health that we should be looking at that as a preventative health strategy," she says. She also wants to see schools mandated to provide a minimum amount of free playtime.

'One of the best days ever'

In Adelaide's comfortable northern suburbs, 12 schools are participating in a two-year trial called Time2Play. Wynn Vale Primary School principal Amanda Browne was keen to participate in the trial because she noticed children were coming to school without "a strong skill set, as they once did, in the areas of resilience, problem solving and collaboration". Browne says unstructured play helps build those skills.

So, two or three times a week during class time, teachers take their class to a scrubby bushland area at the edge of the school for about half an hour. They don't take any equipment, so the children must entertain themselves with whatever they find among trees and muddy piles of dirt. 

"Children were developing little teepees and having little imaginary campfires, and the collaboration, but also the vocabulary and the language that we were starting to see our children use was quite mind-blowing for us," Browne says. The school initially introduced playtime for grades 1 and 2. This year, they have expanded to grades 3 and 4.

Taking time away from classroom learning can feel concerning, Browne admits, but "having this opportunity to explore and imagine and create helps children come back into the classroom to engage in that more content-driven, explicit, direct learning time".

The school plans to continue the initiative beyond the two-year trial. This willingness to embrace unstructured play isn't necessarily widespread; one recent study highlights confusion among teachers about the role of play in primary schools.

Tomorrow, Wynn Vale Primary School will celebrate the International Day of Play for the second year. Last year, they marked the day by taking children to play in a dry creek bed about a 10-minute walk from the school. Browne says the feedback from parents was overwhelming; some said the simple pleasure of exploring their surrounds "was one of the best days for my child ever".

"Some students were even commenting that they lived across the road but had never been down to the creek that was out their front door before," Browne adds. "So, there's obviously a need for it, and I think it's up to us to ensure that we're providing that time for children to ... come off screens and come outside and play and just explore the areas around them."

Play Australia's 2025 State of Play report found those facing the most barriers to access and inclusion in spaces to play were "children in low socioeconomic environments living in high density housing; families with a member who has a disability; children in rural and remote locations; Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children girls". Monro Miller says adopting "play sufficiency measures" that require local government to assess the play opportunities and barriers children face wherever they live would help address access and inclusion.

But play sufficiency isn't necessarily something you can fix by throwing money at it. "We're seeing, in some cases, children from higher socio-economic backgrounds are the ones who are missing out the most because they are being enrolled in more and more structured activities," Monro Miller says.

"So, it's not sort of a question of economic capacity. It's really at times about parents thinking that play is optional rather than needs to be a daily part of their children's lives."

'Protect play'

When Renae Powell raised concerns with her child's school about the lack of playtime, she felt she wasn't making headway. So, she decided to be proactive. What started as Powell volunteering her time with a box of craft at lunchtime grew into a permanent "loose parts" playground at the school. (Playgrounds like this take their name from architect Simon Nicholson's Theory of Loose Parts: that objects children can pick up and repurpose foster creativity and innovation.)

"Playtopia", as it's called, isn't the picture of wholesome play as adults might imagine it. It appears to be an anarchic trash land that is chaotically made and re-made by children. There are plastic and wooden crates, scraps of material, a mud pit, containers and art supplies.

It's taken Powell a decade of fierce advocacy, and it's open during lunch hours when a teacher Powell has trained in "play work" is there to facilitate. Powell, who mentors students in a Victoria University subject on facilitating play in education, describes the role of a play worker as "protecting play" rather than playing with the children.

"You're making sure it's well-resourced and stocked with loose parts. You're doing safety sweeps… all of these background things that happen so that the kids can just come in and get straight to playing."

At Playtopia, the children "create houses and cafes and war zones and some kids just come in there and smash boxes for half an hour because that's what they need to do", Powell says. "And that's play, right? If they don't have a space like this where they can do that, where do they take those feelings? They take it straight back to the classroom."

A playful city?

Further south in Brisbane, two loose parts playgrounds have been created by The Australian Institute of Play as part of Logan Together, a decade-old program aiming to improve the lives of children in Logan, a city that has historically struggled to overcome socio-economic disadvantage.

Five years after the creation of one loose parts playground, which operates several days a week, principal Andrew Bares wrote that "fights and aggression in the school playground virtually disappeared ... [and] school behaviour data has also shown a marked reduction in serious incidents".

"High-quality play" has been a central aim of Logan Together, the program's executive director Michelle Lucas says. But funding play initiatives is hard, Lucas says. "Despite significant advocacy and the proof in terms of the evaluation, we as Logan Together haven't been able to encourage deeper investment in Logan's play culture.

"Play seems to be a little bit overlooked. I think people assume that play happens naturally, but that's not the case anymore."

Back at Playtopia, Powell says it's time to return to basics: "Let them play," she says. She asks Mo Saunders, a grade 4 student and regular visitor to Playtopia, to tell the ABC what he likes about the space. "It's cool, it has a lot of crates, not much teacher supervision, so they don't boss you around as much, it's creative," Saunders says. "I build shelters and tunnels with my friends, with tabletops, cushions and crates to protect us from the rain."