Latest Webinar - Playoneering: Enacting Children's Agency Through the Curriculum
We've got to start building schools from the early years up and not tests down.
(Hayley Peacock, Playoneering: Enacting Children's Agency Through the Curriculum, Tales Toolkit webinar)
What happens when we stop seeing play as something that sits alongside learning – and recognise it as one of the most powerful ways children learn? In our latest webinar, Hayley Peacock joins us to explore Playoneering: an approach that puts children's agency, curiosity and play at the heart of education.
Hayley is a thought leader in play-led education, working at Atelier 21 Future School as well as consulting with schools across a wide range of communities. Her work challenges some of the assumptions we've come to accept about what learning should look like and asks us to think differently about the role children themselves play in shaping their education.
At the heart of the conversation is a simple but important idea: play isn't a break from learning. Play is how children's brains naturally explore, experiment, make connections and understand the world around them.
For Hayley, this isn't simply an educational philosophy – it's rooted in neuroscience.
From teaching children to enabling agency
So much of our education system is built from the top down. We know where children are expected to end up, and increasingly we work backwards from assessments, outcomes and targets to decide what their learning should look like.
Hayley asks us to turn that thinking on its head.
What if we started with the child instead?
Giving children agency doesn't mean stepping away and leaving them to it. It means creating environments in which adults observe, listen, respond and recognise the learning that emerges through children's interests, questions and play.
It also means being comfortable with learning that doesn't always follow the route we expected.
That's where playoneering becomes particularly interesting. It encourages us to think about how we can protect children's natural drive to explore while still working within a curriculum – and how educators can become facilitators of rich, meaningful learning rather than feeling they always need to direct it.
Building education from the early years up
Children possess all the skills, ingenuity and potential, and capability. They have all the foundational skills, the brain is wired to learn from the second they enter the world.
(Hayley Peacock, Playoneering: Enacting Children's Agency Through the Curriculum, Tales Toolkit webinar)
It's a challenge that will resonate with many early years practitioners.
The characteristics we value so highly in our youngest children – curiosity, imagination, experimentation, collaboration and the confidence to follow an idea – shouldn't suddenly become less important as children move through education.
Hayley's work asks what might happen if, instead, we built upon them.
This is a fascinating conversation for anyone interested in play-led learning, children's agency and what education could look like when we trust children to be active participants in their own learning.
Watch for Free
Watch this webinar for free until Tuesday 3rd November 2026. Subscribed members have full access to all our past webinars, but anyone can create a free account to get access to new webinars every month!
Continue Exploring Playoneering with Hayley Peacock
If Hayley's webinar leaves you wanting to see more of Playoneering in practice, there are two upcoming opportunities to explore her work further.
> Step Inside a Playoneering Primary School
Tuesday 13th October 2026, 9:30–10:30am
Wyborne Primary School, Eltham Road, London, SE9 2EH
An opportunity to step inside a primary school and see what Playoneering can look like in practice.
Global Showcase 2026: Reimagining Learning, Protecting Children's Future
Saturday 14th – Monday 16th November 2026
K2 Conference Centre, Crawley & Atelier 21 Future School
A three-day event exploring new possibilities for education and how we can reimagine learning with children's futures at its heart.
Related Webinars from our Back Catalogue
The Power of Play - Changing Children's Lives with Ben Kingston-Hughes
Ben has an ADHD diagnosis himself and talks passionately about the role of neurochemistry in play as a driver for development and connection.
Wellbeing in Practice - For Children and Teachers with Jenny Mosley
Kerry touches on the significant pressues that teachers are under as a result of this rise in SEND support. To learn more about ways to support the entire setting's ecosystem (teachers included!), watch this webinar from Jenny Mosley.
Hitting the Target and Missing the Point with Sue Palmer
If you're keen to hear more from people working to change the system to better support everyone, Sue Palmer from Upstart Scotland is the one for you!
Where's the Joy? Discussing the EYFS Profile with David Wright
More on the topic of systemic change here, as David Wright highlights the ways in which our current curriculum is restricting the creativity and intuition of teachers.
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