Most schools believe in play. Far fewer have designed it.
We help British curriculum international schools turn play from a belief into a system. One that teachers can run consistently, parents trust, and inspectors recognise.
From US$5,000, fixed fee · One day on site · Report and live debrief
Play Practitioners is led by Tricia Mohamed.
Master's in Early Childhood Education, UCL
Over 25 years teaching and leading Early Years in UK and international schools. I have been the person being inspected.
Built on the real standards
Mapped to the EYFS, the BSO standards and ISI.
Known in this sector
Keynote speaker, ACAMIS Early Childhood Conference. Also Kinderly, The Voice of Early Childhood, IPA USA, OMEP and Blended Families.
The problem
Three pressures, one root cause
Every Early Years leader I meet is pulled in three directions at once.
Your board: play or progress
Leaders are told to choose. Push the play and you lose the evidence. Push the evidence and you lose the play. Most settings end up doing a thin version of both.
Your parents: but when will they read?
Families push for formal learning earlier every year. Few educators can explain, in plain words, that play builds the self-regulation and metacognition that reading and maths sit on top of.
Your team: everyone means something different
Every educator sits at a different point on the play spectrum, from tightly structured to entirely free. Without a shared definition, provision changes from room to room.
All three come from the same place. Your team works hard and the provision still comes out uneven, because nobody has agreed what good play looks like in your school.
You cannot see which of these is true in your school. That is not a failing. It is the nature of the job.
Your Early Years lead says it is fine.
They may be right. But they are grading their own work, against a standard no one has written down.
The rooms look busy and happy.
Busy is not the same as progress. A room can look wonderful and evidence almost nothing.
You are not an Early Years specialist.
Nor should you be. You cannot audit a phase you were never trained to teach.
So you find out last. From an inspector, or from a parent who moves their child unexpectedly.
The business case
Your Early Years is the front door of the school
This is a business issue, not a little children issue. Three numbers show what walks through it.
Lifetime fees from one child who joins in Early Years and stays to graduation.
How long most international schools keep a teacher, so quality wobbles with every exit.
Nursery to reception retention at a school with strong Early Years provision.
A wobble in Reception can cost you a decade of fees.
Sources: ISC Research (2024). Journal of Research in International Education. GOV.UK early years case study.
You may know what play-based learning is. You may understand why it matters. Play, Deliberately Designed is the how.
What we do about it
Two ways in
If you are not sure where your Early Years stands
The Play, Deliberately Designed Audit
One day in your rooms, watching real sessions, talking to your team and your children. You get a board-ready report on all seven areas, with the strengths and the risks in each, your priorities named in order, and the quick wins for this term.
From US$5,000
See how the audit worksIf you already know what needs to change
Play, Deliberately Designed: The Enquiry
One day on site, then six fortnightly sessions across twelve weeks. Your team names one question, trials a change, and collects the evidence themselves. It ends with a written case study of your own work.
See how the enquiry worksBoth lead to Play, Deliberately Designed, where we build the system across your whole setting alongside your team.
See the programmeProof
Tricia's insights have sparked meaningful discussions among our staff and inspired a renewed sense of creativity and innovation in our approach to teaching and learning.
M. O'Connor, Headteacher, NASAD
Not the person who signs this off?
If you lead Early Years, you already know your provision is better than it looks on paper.
You have been asked to prove progress in a language that was never built for play. That is not a failure of your practice. It is a translation problem, and it is the one thing an independent audit fixes fastest.
The audit gives you evidence in the words your leadership already uses. It gives your Head a number, a timeline and a report they can take to the board. And it puts an outside name on what you have been saying for two years.
It also gives you an hour of coaching, one to one, on whatever you want to use it for.
Send this to your HeadWhat changes
What a designed system gives you
Your board gets evidence it can act on
Progress you can show, from play you did not have to interrupt.
Your parents get an answer they believe
Play builds the self-regulation and metacognition that reading and maths sit on top of.
Your team gets one definition of good
Everyone moves to the same point on the spectrum, on purpose.
The audit tells you whether you need this. It does not commit you to it.
Questions Heads ask
Who is this for?
British curriculum international schools with two or more Early Years classes, delivering the EYFS and inspected by a DfE approved inspectorate, usually ISI or Education Development Trust. If you are looking for a day of staff development, this is not that.
My Early Years lead says we are fine. Why would I need this?
They may well be right. But they are grading their own work, against a standard nobody has written down, and you have no independent way to check. That is not a failing on anyone's part. It is the nature of the job.
Which should I start with, the Audit or The Enquiry?
If you cannot see inside the phase, or you need something independent to take to your board, start with the Audit. If you already know what you want to change and want to prove your team can change it, start with The Enquiry. If you are not sure which, that is what the call is for.
What actually happens on the audit?
A short discovery call, then one full day in your rooms, then a board-ready report on all seven areas with a rating for each, and a live debrief with your team. The audit page sets it out in full.
What does it cost?
The Audit is from US$5,000. A fixed fee, agreed at the discovery call and confirmed in writing before any work begins. No day rates. Fees exclude travel, which the school covers and we agree in writing before booking. The Enquiry and the programme are quoted on the call.
How much of my team's time does it take?
One day in your rooms, plus a short discovery call. We review documents you already hold, so nothing new gets written for us.
Do you work outside the UK?
Yes. Most of my work is with international schools, including across Asia. For overseas schools the site visit pairs with existing travel.
Do I have to commit to anything afterwards?
No. Whichever route you start with, it tells you whether you want to go further. It does not commit you to it, and if you do go on to the programme, your fee credits against it.
Why leaders call us
Because Early Years is the phase most Heads were never trained to lead, and the one that decides whether families stay.
Twenty minutes on a call will tell us both whether this fits your school this year.