PLAYS Orientation
An introduction to the five principles and the changing conversation about children, play and technology.
Introductory
PLAYS Training
Building the capability to create better digital play.
Professional learning that helps people understand the principles of meaningful digital play and apply them in their own work.
Learning pathways
Learn. Apply. Lead.
Training can be offered through short courses, facilitated workshops, institutional programmes and customised learning journeys.
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Meaningful Digital Play for Educators
Explore how to select, facilitate and reflect on digital experiences in early learning and educational settings.
Educators
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Designing for Meaningful Digital Play
Apply child-centred design questions to digital products, content and interactive experiences.
Design teams
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Digital Parenting & Mediation
Support parents and caregivers to engage with children's digital experiences through conversation, co-play and thoughtful boundaries.
Families
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PLAYS Assessment Training
Develop the knowledge to use assessment dimensions, interpret evidence and support improvement planning.
Professionals
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Inclusive Digital Play
Consider accessibility, neurodiversity, participation and the varied needs of children.
Advanced
Professional learning and certification pathways.
PLAYS™ is developing progressive professional pathways for educators, digital play designers and assessment practitioners. Initial certificates will be certificates of completion or clearly labelled pilot credentials. Formal assessor credentials will require validated indicators, calibration and independent quality assurance.
Enquire about trainingProfessional pathways
A progressive PLAYS™ learning journey
The proposed credential ecosystem moves from awareness to application and then to evidence-based assessment. Initial programmes will be delivered as workshops and cohorts; formal assessor credentials will follow validation and quality assurance.
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PLAYS™ Foundation
3–4 hours. For parents, educators, school leaders and content professionals.
- Understand the five principles
- Reflect on digital play experiences
- Certificate of completion during pilot stage
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PLAYS™ Practitioner
12–16 hours. For educators, curriculum designers, parent educators and digital content teams.
- Apply PLAYS™ to evaluate experiences
- Identify improvement opportunities
- Demonstrate applied learning
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PLAYS™ Assessor and Designer
24–30 hours. For experienced professionals, researchers and product teams.
- Use the detailed assessment rubric
- Collect and interpret evidence
- Complete calibrated assessments and reports
Institutional partnership
Make meaningful digital play part of how your organisation works.
The PLAYS™ Institutional Partnership is a structured collaboration through which an organisation embeds a child-development-led approach to digital play across its products, programmes, people and practice. It is designed as a working relationship—not simply access to a framework or a one-off training.
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Who can partner?
- Schools, school networks and early learning organisations
- Universities, research centres and teacher education institutions
- EdTech companies, app and game developers, and children's media organisations
- Foundations, nonprofits and development organisations
- Government departments, missions and public institutions
- Parenting, family-support and professional networks
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What does partnership enable?
- A shared institutional language for meaningful digital play
- Application of PLAYS™ to products, content and programmes
- Stronger internal capability and cross-functional collaboration
- Evidence-informed improvement and quality assurance
- Learning, research and innovation opportunities
- A planned pathway for sustained institutional adoption
A partnership built around your context
Five connected workstreams
Each partnership is co-designed around the organisation’s mandate, maturity, intended outcomes and operating context. Not every partner needs every workstream.
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01 / Align
Institutional orientation & strategy
Establish a shared understanding of PLAYS™ and identify where it can add value across strategy, product development, curriculum, procurement or programme delivery.
- Leadership and stakeholder orientation
- Institutional readiness and needs assessment
- Joint objectives and implementation roadmap
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02 / Build
People & professional capability
Develop the knowledge and practical skills of teams who design, select, commission, facilitate or evaluate children's digital experiences.
- Tailored workshops and learning cohorts
- Role-based learning pathways
- Internal champions and communities of practice
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03 / Apply
Assessment & improvement
Apply the framework to selected products, content, platforms or programmes and translate findings into actionable improvements.
- PLAYS™ Digital Play Quality Audit
- Product, portfolio or programme review
- Design recommendations and improvement plans
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04 / Create
Co-creation & innovation
Work together to develop or adapt resources and experiences that put meaningful digital play into practice.
- Content, curriculum and learning design
- Prototyping and design sprints
- Parent, educator and child-facing resources
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05 / Learn
Research, evidence & quality review
Build an evidence base on implementation, user experience and the quality of digital play, and use it to guide continuous improvement.
- Baseline and periodic review
- Applied research and evaluation
- Learning reports and recommendations
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06 / Sustain
Institutional adoption & licensing
For suitable partners, establish a defined permission and support arrangement for using PLAYS™ tools and materials within agreed institutional boundaries.
- Agreed scope, sites and user groups
- Approved tools and implementation guidance
- Review, renewal and quality-assurance arrangements
How we work together
From shared intent to sustained practice
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1. Discover
Understand the organisation’s goals, audiences, current practices, products and challenges. Identify the most relevant PLAYS™ applications.
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2. Co-design
Agree partnership objectives, workstreams, roles, implementation sites, deliverables, timelines, evidence requirements and measures of progress.
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3. Implement
Deliver the agreed assessment, learning, design, research or adoption activities with nominated institutional teams.
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4. Review
Examine progress and evidence together, document learning, and identify changes required to strengthen quality and implementation.
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5. Embed
Support institutional champions, practical tools and internal processes so that PLAYS™ informs ongoing decisions beyond the initial engagement.
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6. Renew & extend
Where useful, agree the next phase, additional teams or sites, further research, new products or an expanded licensing arrangement.
Clear roles. Trusted practice.
Partnership principles and safeguards
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PLAYS Learning Innovations will
- Provide agreed framework materials, tools and technical guidance
- Facilitate orientation, training and implementation support
- Conduct or coordinate agreed reviews and research activities
- Share findings transparently, including limitations and evidence gaps
- Protect confidential institutional and product information
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The institutional partner will
- Nominate a partnership lead and relevant implementation team
- Provide agreed access to documentation, products and stakeholders
- Support ethical, safe and accessible participation where relevant
- Use licensed materials only within the agreed scope
- Participate in review, learning and improvement processes
PLAYS™ remains an independent framework. Partnership, training or licence arrangements do not guarantee a positive assessment outcome or confer accreditation. Any formal quality mark or assessor credential will require validated criteria, transparent assessment, calibrated reviewers and independent quality assurance. The terms of use, attribution, confidentiality, data protection, intellectual property and any publication rights will be set out in a written agreement.
Connect
Partnership and collaboration enquiries
Get in touch about working with PLAYS.