Findings

The staff questionnaire focused on practitioners’ individual feelings towards war and weapon play, how they approach this and if they record role play with elements of war or weapons in a child’s learning journal.

The questionnaire was issued to seven members of staff, and was completed by six.

The questionnaire focussed on gaining an understanding of the individual’s feelings towards war and weapon play and the approach they would take towards it within the setting. Although no one said they were against war and weapons featuring in role play, there were some apprehensions or concerns expressed particularly regarding play becoming boisterous or causing injury.

There were some conflicting responses regarding the approaches staff take with war and weapon play. Some members of staff said they would discourage this play, while other members of the team would allow the play to continue.

The responses show us that while as a team it would appear we are open to the prospect of elements of war and weapon play and acknowledge there are positive aspects to it, we do however have some concerns and inconsistences in the approaches towards this. This results in children receiving mixed responses to their play. Our next step is to look at agreeing ways in which we can make this more consistent for our children while ensuring staff feel more confident and comfortable in doing so.

The final focus of the staff questionnaire was around recording children’s play. 100% of the responses stated that they had not recorded this type of role play in a child’s learning journal. A lack of confidence and also concerns of parental reactions, were given as some of the barriers to recording this form of role play. Could we now begin to make these observations and record children’s role play, fully sharing the learning taking place with our families?

The parental questionnaire was issued to all 39 of our families, I received 13 responses.

85% of the responses said they would not discourage their child from engaging in war and weapon role play. The feedback also revealed that 46% of the children represented in the completed questionnaires own a weapon type toy at home. When asked if practitioners shared the benefits would they be happy for their child to engage in this form of role play 92% of participants said yes they would.

This data shows us that a large percentage of our families are open to the prospect of role play taking place in nursery with elements of war and weapons.

The following observation is an example of war and weapon play which has taken place during the study:

Two boys were working together at block area gathering up the quadruple unit blocks and placing them on top of shelving unit, in a row.  As they did this they negotiated, helped each other to manoeuvre the blocks, and carefully and purposefully placed each one. As he placed the final block onto the unit child 1 said “Right Guys, Charge your guns!” (They appeared to have created a charging station) Child 2 then said “Its charged, let’s go!” They each picked up a quadruple unit block, carrying it under their arms. Child 1 said “We need to find the bad guy!” Child 2 replied “Let’s get him and put him in jail.”

The boys then went around the nursery in search of the ‘bad guy’. Another child joined their play taking on the bad guy role as the boys appeared to catch him. They acted out putting handcuffs and marching him back to the block area, pointing their guns at him as they put him jail. the three boys then worked together to construct a jail for the bad guy. They played together for  some time, as they took turns at being the bad guy. Child 1 said “They are trying to capture me but I got away, oh no here they come!” before running out into the garden where the  play continued.

Throughout the play the boys displayed great imagination and creativity. They played cooperatively and shared resources. They used good language skills in their role play and extended their play theme by incorporating other resources and children. They also constructed new models to accommodate the evolving play theme. The boys demonstrated a high level of engagement in their role play.

Conclusion

This research project has given us the starting point to explore the theme of war and weapon play in our setting. This form of role play arises with each cohort of children we have, and therefore there is clearly a need for some children to engage in this play. In the past we have all been known to stop this play or redirect it to something we are more comfortable with. After reflection and many staff discussions, we are now as team questioning why we do this. We are all willing to try different approaches, becoming more open to the benefits of this role play. We now need to build on this research and look at developing a shared approach to this play. We will begin to extend this project into our written recordings of the children’s war/weapon play. When recording these observations of this play we will refer back to our Local Authority quality observation checklist, ensuring we are recording the learning taking place. All staff are keen to develop their understanding of war and weapon play, therefore as team have all agreed to take on some professional reading, engaging with Penny Holland’s book. Then come together, share our thoughts and compile an action plan as to how we develop our approach to this play.

We hope this will demonstrate to our children and families that we value all play and recognise each individual child’s interests and play themes.

I have found that many of our families are open to war and weapon play and we strive to share the benefits with them and reassure those with any concerns.