Aim: Underpinned by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), this research aimed to explore children's views around accessing their Article 31 right to play in two schools in England and Wales and to promote their Article 12 right to be heard. Methods: Views of 16 children were sought using child-centred methods. Child-led…

This paper presents an exploratory study of English and Swedish teachers' perspectives on the role of parents in year one children's learning of number. Drawing on the results of semi-structured interviews, data from each cohort were analysed independently to ensure the cultural integrity of any response categories and the results of this process…

This paper examines how young children experience the moral and bodily discipline of the modern English 'on-task' primary classroom, in which they are expected to sit quietly and still for long periods on the classroom carpet, listening to what teachers know. It details the conditions of the classrooms, a performance-focused environment centred on…

In English schools, transition from the Foundation Stage (at age five) into Year 1 (the first year of "primary school") has been identified as lacking continuity. A range of government initiatives has led to marked differences in the pedagogy that underpins classroom practice in these two consecutive year groups, which, in turn, has…

Reported are findings from the first phase of a longitudinal study concerning the impact of the first year of school on the development of young children's social gender identities. Ethnographic research in two primary schools in the south of England identified six aspects of settings which can be used to mark gender: social categories, group…