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. No one 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
Start with an audit, then build
Start here
The 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 strengths and risks and the changes worth making this term.
From US$5,000
See how the audit worksThen, if you want it
Play, Deliberately Designed
Schools that want to go further move on to the programme, where we work alongside your team to build and embed the system rather than hand you a document.
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 against the BSO standards or by ISI. 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.
What actually happens?
A short discovery call, then one full day in your rooms, then a board-ready findings report with a readiness rating against the seven graded areas and a live debrief with your team. The audit page sets out both tiers in detail.
What does it cost?
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.
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. The audit tells you whether you need more. It does not commit you to 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.