Scaling Play: Safe School Environments

The current view of education chiefly appraises a child’s academic achievements. But schools and education systems are beginning to value social and emotional learning as a vital portion of a child’s school experience and long-term success in life. Play is a natural source of social learning. When used to its full potential, play has the ability to unlock educational opportunities and improve the healthy development of every kid. activity and safe, meaningful play. Playworks leverages recess, a part of the school day widely untapped, to encourage health and fitness, teamwork, and individual confidence, allowing children to return to the classroom more ready to learn. Entire schools and staff become learn to use play as an essential developmental tool to improve the educational environment and social/emotional development of every kid.

Over the next three years, Playworks NorCal will pilot a plan to scale programmatic and financial sustainability by creating and implementing a robust menu of services that build the capacity of partner schools to continue Playworks’ healthy play methodologies independently. Playworks will continue to offer the signature “Playworks Coach” program, an intensive intervention in schools needing the most support and investment. Playworks will also grow its professional development offerings (“Playworks Pro”) , for schools with the capacity to implement Playworks methodologies themselves. In addition, Playworks will pilot new offerings like “Playworks TeamUp” that provide a combination of consultation and direct intervention. Playworks will also develop and implement the “Great Recess Framework,” a tool for assessing schools’ needs, identifying the best path to operating a great recess independently. The northern California region serves as an incubator for Playworks nationally. Through strategic collaboration and coordinated implementation, Playworks will develop and refine the path to scale, with the goal of partnering with 10,000 elementary schools across the country by 2025.

Vision

Hiding in plain sight, transforming schools through play

The big vision is leveraging play to transform how children experience school and, by extension, how they perform in school. Playworks creates healthy, safe, and supportive school environments where children are happy and ready to learn. Playworks will achieve success when the education sector values and measures social/emotional skills, empowering every child to lead with empathy and inclusion

Playworks

Scaling Play: Safe School Environments

Model and Strategy

Impact

Leadership

Jill Vialet

Elizabeth Cushing