Pioneers of play in the groves of academe

Lego is funding a professorship of play, development and learning at the University of Cambridge. Photograph: Martin Lehmann/AP

The post advertised by Cambridge University is not for the “world’s first professor of play”, as your story claims (Apply now for the most coveted job in education, 17 January). That title rightly belongs to either Fraser Brown of Leeds Beckett University, where he has been professor of playwork since 2011, or the late Perry Else, who was professor of play studies at Sheffield Hallam University from around 2012 until his untimely death in 2014.

While not enjoying the profile that Lego and Cambridge can attract, each man was a pioneer, advancing knowledge and understanding of children’s play and helping to establish playwork – the role of providing supported space for play – as an emerging profession.
Adrian Voce
London

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