My wife teaches children in the age of 4-6 at an expensive, well-known, and high-achieving school, following a British curriculum but not in the UK.
The whole damn syllabus is play-focussed. Teachers aren't allowed to plan lessons more than a day or two in advance as they're required to follow the children's interests. Play activities are set up to help the children develop certain skills, and their development in those is monitored, but again, it's _all_ play.
This was a difficult adjustment for her coming from a deprived inner-city school in the UK, but she's now on top of it, and the whole child-led development thing appears to be pretty well established in academic circles.
The whole damn syllabus is play-focussed. Teachers aren't allowed to plan lessons more than a day or two in advance as they're required to follow the children's interests. Play activities are set up to help the children develop certain skills, and their development in those is monitored, but again, it's _all_ play.
This was a difficult adjustment for her coming from a deprived inner-city school in the UK, but she's now on top of it, and the whole child-led development thing appears to be pretty well established in academic circles.