Welcome to the June 2026 PLA roundup!
Last week we had one of our regular in-person meetups, thank you to Northumbria Uni and RE:PLAY for hosting us!
We had talks, workshops and activities from a wide range of people, hearing about RE:PLAY, a mentoring card card game, playful and compassionate communication, Theatre and neurodiverse communication, the rebound effect, the pitfalls of playful learning design, memes, the last PLA online Jam session, and so much more – take a look at the Padlet where we’ve embedded some of it! We’d normally try and summarise as much as possible, but this month’s update is quite full as lots of the people who presented asking you to think about stuff and get in touch, so we’ll concentrate on those. Next in-person meeting will normally be in November and we’d ideally like it to be further south (we try to move around to make it easier for different people to attend). If you think you can host us for 2 days and provide lunch on the first day, drinks throughout, please get in touch 🙂
If you came to the Northumbria meetup, or to the online Jam session in February and you have any further thoughts about how to build on the Online Jamming Session from Emma and Mark, or want to know more details about it, please drop Mark an email at mark.childs@durham.ac.uk The Padlet Sandbox can be found at
https://padlet.com/lancashire/playful-learning-association-collaborative-jamming-feb-2026-g3upkwr2rk03s11y Mark is trying to think of ways of collating all the contributions and turning it into a more accessible (informal?) publication.
Daisy would love feedback on her materials around playful learning design (see the Padlet!) – if you use it, have any comments to make, or just generally want to share your love for her work, please get in touch with Daisy D.Abbott@gsa.ac.uk
Roger would would like to remind any of you playful learning people that if you have something they’d like to share then he’d love to have you on his podcast, the L&T Chat Show. Get in touch directly with Roger if you’re interested! roger.saunders@dmu.ac.uk
Research Opportunity: Teacher Contemplation Cards research project
We are looking for research participants, who currently work as or with teachers, to trial a deck of ‘teacher contemplation cards’. We interpret the term teacher broadly, reaching beyond those teaching in compulsory education (primary and secondary schools) to those working in Further Education, Higher Education, those working in community and heritage-based learning projects etc.
The project is inspired by the recent rise in popularity of analogue resources for contemplation, reflection and meditation (such as tarot and oracle decks). We want to find out whether:
- using open-ended contemplation cards can support meaningful, creative reflection on teaching experiences and identities;
- using open-ended contemplation cards can support the development of playful and engaging mentoring spaces.
If you are interested, more information about the project is available on the Participant Information Sheet (PIS), available here: https://canva.link/pmaqn19fbt9jbo4
The project involves: exploring the contemplation cards, trialling the contemplation cards, and then completing an online consent and feedback form to evaluate the impact of the cards on your reflection and/or mentoring activities. Please read the PIS before deciding whether you would like to take part.
If, having read the PIS, you decide that you would like to take part in the project, the contemplation card deck can be accessed as a print and play resource, or a pre-printed hard copy can be provided to you.
The print and play resource is available here: https://canva.link/5ivbpjceqnheimw
Please email Kathryn.Spicksley@glasgow.ac.uk to request a hard copy of the card deck to be sent to you.
We expect participation in the project to take between 30 minutes to 1.5 hours.
Any questions about the research project can be directed to Dr Kathryn Spicksley (Lecturer in Teacher Education, University of Glasgow). Please note that all participants need to be over 18.
Kathryn.Spicksley@glasgow.ac.uk
There’s a brilliant looking AnthroPlay x Royal Anthropological Institute seminar coming up on Tuesday 9th June, Ludic Fascism: Ethnographic Perspectives on Play in the Political Present. More information and a link to register can be found on their website – https://therai.org.uk/events/anthropology-of-play-and-games-ludic-fascism/
We were also wondering about opening up the PLA website for people to write opinion pieces on adult play, to help make it clear to people considering playful approaches what we mean by these things (without it being as formal as a journal article). So we might approach a handful of people in the coming month or so to write something, but drop us a line if you want to offer something up front!
And finally, something from me! I was inspired by a talk at Counterplay recently on a potential intervention to see if burnout in nurses could be helped through play (by Rachel Haley Himmelheber). I wondered if I could do something aimed at a slightly different thing – neurodivergent (ND) / autistic burnout? This type of burnout is different to “typical” burnout, but play might also help? So, could any of you lovely people suggest gentle, neurodivergent friendly, play challenges I could set for a small group of ND people at risk or, or slowly recovering from, ND burnout? If so, fire them away to me please at andywalsh999@gmail.com
I lied, here’s a final, final one added just after I posted! Pete King is asking for people to participate in a study on perceptions of play. The aim of this study is to explore how play-based professionals (practitioners, trainers, educators, etc) across any context (playwork, childcare, early years education, etc.) perceive and apply definitions of play. The study involves taking part in an anonymous and confidential online survey which would take between 8-10 minutes to complete. The link to the survey is https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSf7kbt-sHn8HIy_TlBLx1FAeE9eniLQHIieVN4PGxqiKy7ksw/viewform?usp=header
The study has ethical approval from Swansea University. If you want to know more about the study, please contact me at p.f.king@swansea.ac.uk