Explore your relationship with play as a leader and team member. Meet future students like yourself as well as school alumni who’ll share their experiences of learning and growing with The School of Play.
Are you prematurely aging because of stuckness at work? Do you dream of clarity, alignment and flow for yourself, your team and your organisation? Do you long for control and order amidst complexity and chaos?
Join us this autumn to learn how to navigate complex and chaotic systems and enable them to flourish by living and leading your best playful life!
We celebrate this spring with a collection of exquisite invitations for co-creation and co-elevation. The more the merrier when it comes to True Play, so feel free to share these invitations with your friends, your colleagues and your loved ones!
The Lila Circle: Where True Transformation Happens – ONLINE
True Transformation begins with exploring our inner life. A unique women’s leadership circle for women ready to reclaim our power and realise big dreams
True embodied transformation takes time, just like the way a caterpillar becomes a butterfly. Practitioner courses are fully immersive 3-day in-person learning experiences where playmakers and organisational archmages gather to explore a particular theme of leadership and organisational transformation.
The next Practitioner course is CREATION 7-9 May 2025 where participants will be reconnecting with their roots and wings of creativity as we explore the trio of Creator, Creations and the Creative process and what it means to be a playful leader.
After completing this 3-day experiential training, participants will experience a powerful leadership upgrade through techniques and ancient technology by transmuting their shadows into their greatest gifts aligned with their life purpose in service of the systems to which they belong.
A Kaleidoscope of Leadership Learning
This February we launch the next evolution of the Playful Leadership programme as a trio of courses available online and in-person to meet the enthusiasm for Play Alchemy worldwide. Find out more here.
Essentials Part 1
PLAY INTELLIGENCE
Reconnecting You with Your Greatest Superpower
Our 2-day introductory training offers a multitude of ways to experience the practical application of core Play theories and models in personal and group transformation.
Essentials Part 2
PLAY TECTONICS
Enabling Systemic Change and Have Fun Doing It
Our Essentials Part 2 training explores how organisations can thrive when we understand the relationships and patterns of interaction within a system using an approach known as Systemic Constellations.
Essentials Part 3
PLAY GENIUS
Emotional Mastery Through Our Play Circuitry
Our Essentials Part 3 training focuses on making friends with our own emotions even in the toughest of situations as we explore the phenomenological nature of leadership.
Have you ever wondered what happens when children play to their hearts’ content?
Now imagine what happens when adults get to play to their hearts’ content…
Wonder no longer! This is what we look like and what we sound like when a bunch of likehearted and openminded adults get together… we bring to life our full potential by tapping into our greatest individual and collective super power what Dr. Stuart Brown and I like to call True Play.
Playful Leadership: CREATION THROUGH PLAY ALCHEMY is a groundbreaking introductory course to the concept, practice and magic of Play Alchemy – a term coined by Portia Tung, the founder of The School of Play. Play Alchemy describes the process, tools and techniques for transmuting the seemingly insurmountable challenges we face into positive outcomes so that we can thrive and have fun making a living in a VUCA world.
If you long to imagine at least six impossible things before breakfast and have realised a bunch of them by dinner time, this is the course for you. You’ll get to explore your relationship with play and creativity in community and experience deep joy as you regain your superpower of manifesting more of what you wish for like you used to as a child.
And we didn’t just co-write one song, we co-composed two! Special thanks to Stuart Cocks our music meister for putting music and video to our words of calm delight and sheer joy!
“Can I read you a poem?” my new friend Di asks me just now as our video chat draws to an end. “It’s called Today by Billy Collins. I heard it on the radio earlier this morning and I thought you might like it.”
My heart giggles quietly with joy at being offered a poetry reading by an adult. I can’t, for the life of me, remember the last time this happened.
Meet Dianne Gammage, author of Playful Awakening – Releasing the Gift of Play in Your Life. I first came across Di’s soul-lifting book on play in the summer of 2023. The book resonated with me the moment it crossed my path and I’d been daydreaming about the kind of conversations we’d have over a cup of tea. So I wrote Di an email (I would have written her a letter if that were still fashionable) introducing her to my baby oak tree Querkie and telling her about my PLAY book.
As I move ever closer to completing the manuscript of my next book (next Thursday!), I cherish the many new and profound friendships I’ve made on my personal play adventure. It reminds me of what making true friends was like as a child. A time when I truly played and now that the wheel has turned – I am being invited to play again. And I extend that invitation to you.
You can find Di’s talk about Playful Awakening and play therapy here.
If you’d like to explore ways of experiencing more joy through play in your life – be it at work and/or at home, for you or with your team or with your family – let’s have a chat over a virtual cuppa.
As this year draws to an end and we stand together on the cusp of a new year, I’d like to thank you for your warm interest, enthusiasm and commitment in leading more playful lives and enabling transformational change for greater good – be it at work, at home or wherever life finds you.
A Wise Owl Looks Back…
This year has been a rollercoaster ride of fun and growth as the Playful Leadership programme launched two brand new courses in the beautiful play space of Ashridge House, inspiration for Hogwarts, in Berkhamsted, UK.
In spring 2023, we cultivated greater emotional awareness and intelligence on Playful Leadership: Rejuvenation which re-connected us with some of our most powerful inner resources to overcome the challenges we face.
In summer 2023, I splish-splashed with delight with Robert Digings on the subject of play and leadership in his podcast series Highly Relational – that play could not only be an approach to work but a credible and effective leadership approach I call Playful Leadership.
This autumn brought together the highest number of The School of Play’s alumni at a single event, along with new playmakers, as we accompanied one another on our individual journey back to our collective point of origin on Playful Leadership: Origination to increase our creativity by harnessing our passions, skills, wishes and dreams.
This winter we gathered in my home city of Milton Keynes for a 1-day workshop Glow in Prosperity to explore our relationship with giving and taking through techniques for manifesting abundance so it can percolate in different aspects of our lives.
Meet You Second Star to the Right in 2024
To celebrate the new year, we at The School of Play are merrily preparing a whole host of heart-warming and new ways for you to say “Yay!” to more play in 2024.
Keep your eyes peeled for upcoming events by signing up for The School of Play newsletter-blog here.
The Play in Me bows to the Play in You and Those You Are Important To,
What better way to celebrate what some are calling the “year of the new abnormal” by saying “Yay!” to play? You’re cordially invited to Four Seasons of Play, the School of Play’s freshest year-long programme where you’re invited to play, make and, most vitally, do you.
Through the unique practical mashup of the latest play science, psychology, neuroscience and coaching techniques, you’ll feast on fun and purpose towards transformative change, leaving each workshop feeling inspired and resourced to embrace all that 2022 has to offer. For you and those to whom you matter.
Enjoy each workshop as a standalone experience or as a combination of 4 modules in a year-long programme where you’ll learn about true play, innovative ways to cultivate your play intelligence and shift towards a play mindset as the seasons change. Play your cards right and you’ll grow as an individual and as a leader so you can thrive instead of just survive in what some folks are describing as “new abnormal” times.
There’s no need to go it alone when it comes to creating the change you want to see or turning your dreams into reality. Experience the transformative power of play in the company of true leaders, adults who dare to play.
As American director and actor Orson Welles once said, “If you want a happy ending, that depends on, of course, where you stop your story.” Where will you choose to take your story?
Do you sometimes feel stuck in groundhog day in spite of your best intentions? Or perhaps you dream of escaping messy endings and long for better beginnings? According to one school of systemic thinking, the secret to happy beginnings are happy endings. Join us in a laughterful session on the secret to enabling happier beginnings and endings grounded in play science because transformative change happens when we laugh in the face of fear.
Upcoming Workshop: From Halloween to Festive Cheer – Towards Better Beginnings on 15 October 2021
Better prepare for new beginnings by joining us in a playful exploration of the vital themes of beginning, belonging and ending. In this highly interactive workshop you’ll have several chances to play at your edge on professional and personal topics of your choice in order to glean the necessary resources and learnings that make up the foundation of your new beginnings. You’ll be invited to explore core play memories that make up your play history and, in doing so, get the chance to reflect on, restore and resource your playful self. You’ll have the option to work on your own, in small groups as well as the whole group in order to identify and connect with what’s truly vital for you to flourish in your next beginning.
This workshop is part of the Four Seasons of Play 2021 programme. Each workshop can be enjoyed independently or as a combination of modules in a year-long programme where you’ll learn about true play, how to cultivate your play intelligence and shift towards a play mindset as the seasons change. Play your cards right and you’ll grow as a person as well as a leader by becoming more resourceful, resilient and real in these unprecedented and transformative times.
Workshop Takeaways:
Play Theory: Play Personalities from Dr. Stuart Brown, Play Learning Cycle by Scott Eberle and the latest play change theory Bobul Mechanics by Portia Tung
Systemic principles for enabling healthy relationships from start to finish
Increased self-awareness of your relationship with beginnings, belonging and endings
A powerful set of additional or renewed resources to create happier endings and beginnings
Increased resilience when dealing with professional and personal change.
This workshop is limited to a maximum of 8 participants.
Who would benefit from taking part in this workshop?
The Four Seasons of Play workshops focus on enabling individuals to develop the systemic mindset and skills necessary for an individual to lead effectively – be it yourself, your team, your family or your life. At each workshop, you’ll experience a range of eclectic tools and techniques you are unlikely to have come across before which you could then apply at work and at home.
Where do you sign up?
Join us for a taste of summer and delight your colleagues, family and friends with playful leadership by the seaside. Sign up for the workshop here!
Does the arrival of spring leave you heady with the prospect of the promise of the sun, sea and sand? That’s because according to the play experts, the most playful place in the world is the beach. Why leave the weather to chance when you can book yourself on an energising and restorative virtual half-day out by the sea while cultivating your creativity and leadership skills in the most playful place in the world?
Upcoming Workshop: Amidst the Sun, Sea and Sand – An Exploration of Your Relationship with Play
Whether you prefer quiet contemplation under a parasol lying on the warm sand or perhaps making the most opulent of sandcastles or taking a plunge in search of sea monsters, join us in this playful exploration of your relationship with play. You’ll have the option to work on your own, in small groups as well as the whole group as we go on a play adventure that will leave you feeling resourced, re-energised and refreshed inside and out along. You’ll take home with you your personalised play profile to keep you playing long after the metaphorical sand has been washed off your toes.
This workshop is part of the Four Seasons of Play 2021 programme. Each workshop can be enjoyed independently or as a combination of modules in a year-long programme where you’ll learn about true play, how to cultivate your play intelligence and shift towards a play mindset as the seasons change. Play your cards right and you’ll grow as a person as well as a leader by becoming more resourceful, resilient and real in these unprecedented and transformative times.
Workshop Takeaways:
Play Theory: Play Types, Change Theory and Attachment Theory
Increased understanding of your relationship with change
A personalised and more detailed play profile of how you like to play
Ideas for enabling change in yourself and others, at work and at home
Increased play intelligence in yourself and when working with others.
This workshop is limited to a maximum of 8 participants.
Who would benefit from taking part in this workshop?
The Four Seasons of Play workshops focus on enabling individuals to develop the systemic mindset and skills necessary for an individual to lead effectively – be it yourself, your team, your family or your life. At each workshop, you’ll experience a range of eclectic tools and techniques you are unlikely to have come across before which you could then apply at work and at home.
Where do you sign up?
Join us for a taste of summer and delight your colleagues, family and friends with playful leadership by the seaside. Sign up for the workshop here!
Hip! Hip! Hooray! We’re delighted to announce the first ever online play workshop, From Carpe Diem to Carpe Annum 2021, created by The School of Play is full up and ready to rock.
Thank you to those of you who’ve written to me since the launch of Four Seasons of Play, an online play programme designed to mark, explore and celebrate each season of your life’s play adventure in 2021 in these challenging and interesting times.
Never Say Never
Some of you said: “Thanks, not this time… No, thanks. t’s not really for me… No, thanks but I’ll pass it on for sure.” Never say never, so perhaps tomorrow will be the day to play. Or may be next time. Or the time after that. Play works like a muscle so we never really forget so long as we’ve played in our childhood. It’s like riding a bike, or bowling a ball or skating on ice. The most important step is the first one. In any case, it’s never too late to start. And it’s always a good time to learn.
Learn to Look Beyond Optical Illusions
Then out of the blue, one of you wrote to say, “There’s something about this whole play thing that most people seem to have missed – myself included I’m sorry to say. Yet it attracts me as the missing ingredient to just making all of life wonderful – besides I appreciate it’s less serious than other forms of spiritual enlightenment.” This is what makes my heart sing. And may be it will make yours sing, too – if you allow it.
If you’re wondering what play pioneers (aka playmakers) look like, take a tour around The School of Play website. I’m hoping it’ll give you a sense of the kind of unadulterated joy that comes from having fun with complete strangers who become seasonal friends. Just imagine what you could do with this kind of energy (and it doesn’t come with any nasty side effects as far I’m aware).
With the weekend just around the corner, how will you choose to play?
Winter Online Workshop on Friday, 29 January 2021 – 13.00 – 17.00 GMT
The hustle and bustle of modern life means that for many of us, play has become a luxury we just don’t have the time, energy nor ideas to do anymore. Without enough true play in our daily lives, we become trapped in a vicious cycle of low energy, low creativity, low resilience, low hope and low growth.
Here’s your chance to re-invigorate your new year’s resolutions (or throw away the already old ones and replace them with even newer ones!) in an unexpectedly fun, friendly and productive way. You’ll have the option to work on your own, in small groups as well as the whole group on a range of playful and thought-provoking activities and learn a smattering of fundamental play theories such as the Play Cycle and the theory of Multiple Intelligences to enable you to translate your dreams and wishes into tangible goals. Then you’ll create a master plan you can start to action right away to make 2021 a year to remember.
Workshop Takeaways:
Play Theory: The Play Cycle and Multiple Intelligences
A personalised basic play profile of how you like to play
Fresh thinking and insights on yourself and your dreams, wishes and goals
Your personalised plan for 2021
A personalised and robust strategy on how to achieve your chosen goals for 2021.
This workshop is limited to a maximum of 8 participants.
Who would benefit from taking part in this workshop?
The Four Seasons of Play workshops focus on enabling individuals to develop the systemic mindset and skills necessary for an individual to lead effectively – be it yourself, your team, your family or your life. At each workshop, you’ll experience a range of eclectic tools and techniques you are unlikely to have come across before which you could then apply at work and at home.
What past participants say about this workshop:
“Probably the most fun I’ve ever had in planning for a new year!”
“It didn’t feel like the usual drudgery that comes with planning… I had so much fun planning it felt like cheating!”
“It brought me so much joy just looking at the plan… And I really enjoyed working through the plan over the course of the year!”
“The planning approach is so useful, I’ll be using it to plan for the next new year!”
Find out more abou the workshop here. We look forward to learning and growing together through the power of play!
THE SCHOOL OF PLAY 