Pop Up Play Village in Schools, Pre – Schools and Nurseries

Bringing Learning to Life Through Role Play

At Pop Up Play Village, we work with primary schools and early years settings across the UK, delivering immersive role play workshops that inspire curiosity, develop confidence and bring learning to life. Created by a qualified primary teacher, our curriculum linked workshops support learning across EYFS, Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2, helping children develop communication, creativity, collaboration and problem solving through meaningful play.

Every Pop Up Play Village visit is carefully planned to complement your curriculum while providing children with an unforgettable educational experience. Whether you’re exploring a curriculum topic, developing communication and language, supporting wellbeing or simply looking for an engaging enrichment day, our workshops encourage children to become active participants in their own learning.

At the heart of our approach is our unique open plan role play village. Unlike traditional role play areas, children can see every environment available to them, allowing them to move freely between different scenarios, make connections across their learning and extend their own ideas through imaginative, child led play. This open ended approach encourages creativity, independence and collaboration while enabling adults to sensitively support and extend learning as it unfolds.

Every workshop is fully inclusive and tailored to the needs of your children, ensuring every pupil has the opportunity to explore, communicate and thrive through the power of role play.

How Can We Support Your School?

Every school is different, which is why we’ve created specialist programmes to meet a range of educational needs. Whether you’re looking for curriculum linked workshops, wellbeing support or SEND provision,  explore our dedicated pages below to find out more about what we can offer your setting. 

What are the educational benefits of our mobile role play village visiting your setting?

Having Pop Up Play Village visit your school offers a multitude of advantages: 

• Play Based Curriculum: The curriculum emphasises learning through play, which is essential for children’s development. Engaging in role play allows children to explore different scenarios and learn in a natural, enjoyable way.

• Power of Learning Through Role Play: Role play fosters creativity and imagination, enabling children to express themselves freely. This method encourages them to take ownership of their learning experiences.

• Supports Communication Skills and Language Skills: The interactive nature of role play enhances speech and language development. Children are encouraged to communicate with peers, improving their vocabulary and conversational skills in a relaxed setting. 

• Motivation to Learn: Our educational play experiences create an engaging and fun environment. Our role play village is an immersive play experience creating enthusiasm and a love for learning. Lots of fun whilst learning at the same time.

• Develops Social Skills: Playing together helps children build friendships and learn important social cues. They practice sharing, taking turns, and resolving conflicts within the safe context of play.

• Cross-Curricular Learning: Activities in Pop Up Play Village integrate various subjects, allowing children to apply their knowledge in practical situations. For example, they can practice maths skills while managing a shop or enhance literacy by reading menus.

• Develops fine and gross motor skills – We have such a wide range of resources that the children will explore supporting the development of these core skills.

Here is what we can offer for a school trip:

• We can come in on a regular weekly basis to teach a class of children purely through our role play areas. A great way to cover a class teacher’s planning, preparation and assessment time.

• We can come in and run a role play day linked to any topic that the children are currently learning about. We can take up to 30 children at a time in each play session.

• We have 5 week programmes for schools and early years settings which focuses on key areas of learning:

– Communication and Language

– Problem Solving

– Personal, Social and Emotional Development

– Writing for a Purpose

In these sessions, we set up our role play village for the children to learn through play with the focus being on developing a specific area of learning as well as the benefits of our village being cross curricular too. Each week we will build on what we have been learning the previous week so that by the end of the 5 week programme, the children have had a high quality learning experience purely through play.

• We can run outdoor explorers sessions which are all about the children getting outdoors and exploring nature. This again can be themed and linked to a current topic. We can run one off sessions, a series of sessions or run regular weekly sessions. More information about outdoor explorers can be found under our outdoor explorers heading on our website.

• We can run a fundraising event for your school alongside your PTA.

• After school clubs – we can run a role play or outdoor explorers after school club. Our after schools clubs are suitable for FS through to KS2.

Planning for a Pop Up Play Village School Visit

If you have more than one class that you would like us to work with, we can run a selection of sessions within one day or we can visit for multiple days. There can be individual sessions tailored to a topic or area of learning that you would like us to focus on for each class. Just let us know what you would like and we will do the planning and organisation of the day.

There are no classroom resources needed to facilitate our sessions. We will need a large empty room such as a school hall where we can set up. Alternatively, we can look at setting up in your classroom or nursery if the space is available for the play areas that you would like us to provide.

Booking a Pop Up Play Village Visit

To find out more information or to book one of our educational visits, do get in contact with us through our online form below or email hello@popupplayvillage.co.uk.

Once you have your date confirmed for your visit, we will send you a booking confirmation including all of the booking details that you need. An easy and stress free way to book your school visit.

There is no minimum amount of days in advance or weeks in advance that you need to book. If we have the date available that you would like, it is all yours!

What are the benefits of building regular role play into your curriculum?

High quality role play is far more than playtime. When embedded consistently across the year, it becomes a powerful teaching tool that supports the whole child.

Benefits include:

– Deeper learning through hands on, experiential exploration

– Enhanced language and communication as children practise dialogue, storytelling and social interaction

– Improved emotional literacy, allowing children to rehearse, express and manage feelings safely

– Greater collaboration and teamwork through shared imaginative scenarios

– Real world understanding when exploring jobs, community roles and everyday situations

– Inclusive learning that supports SEND children through sensory friendly, low pressure experiences

– Boosts in confidence and wellbeing through open ended play where every child can succeed

When role play becomes a regular part of school life, it enriches every subject area from literacy and maths to science, PSHE and the wider curriculum.

Reviews

”We recently had the pleasure of hosting Pop Up Play Village at our school, and it was an outstanding experience! The activities were incredibly engaging, and our children played beautifully and behaved wonderfully throughout the session. The organisation and creativity that Pop Up Play Village brought to our school were exceptional. The teaching team and I were thoroughly impressed with the quality of the activities and the enthusiasm of the staff. Additionally, we received a flyer to share with families, detailing the services and contact information, which was very helpful. We also got information about an exciting 5-week programme starting in September, as well as e-brochures for EYFS, KS1, and KS2. Overall, Pop Up Play Village exceeded our expectations, and we highly recommend their services to other schools. We look forward to future collaborations! Best regards, Karen”

Review from a school visit in Chester

”Pop Up Play Village came to visit us at Birchanger Butterflies Preschool and wow what a fantastic experience it was. All of our children aged 2-4 years old had an amazing time exploring the different play areas and were all fully engaged in all the role play areas. This was a brilliant way for the children to develop their skills and understand the different types of job roles there are. Katie was amazing with the children and we will 100% be booking in another session very soon.”

Review from Birchanger Butterflies Preschool in Birchanger

”A wonderful enhancement to our curriculum. Pop Up Play is a wonderful resource to enhance our curriculum and promote oracy, creativity, collaboration and well-being across the school. Becky’s planning is detailed, fool proof and easy to use and apply in different contexts. She has offered us ongoing help and support in implementing Pop Up Play and in embedding it within our planning and practice.”

School License Review- John Rankin Infant School, Newbury 

”We booked the pop-up play village for our school EYFS setting. The whole experience was fantastic and we would recommend the pop-up play village to anyone with Early Years or wants something different for a children’s party. The communication with Hannah beforehand was easy and effective. Hannah sets everything up and tidies away so other adults did not have to do anything. Our children had a wonderful time and were thoroughly engaged throughout the whole session. The resources were all really high quality. We will definitely be booking again!”

Review from D Kelly, EYFS class teacher in Cannock

”It is always a pleasure to welcome Pop Up Play Village to Little Knellies at The Abbey School. To see the excitement and joy your sessions bring to the children is wonderful and it is such a highlight. We love the flexibility of so many themes, matching to our current units of inquiry or to try out something new for us, we all look forward to seeing what is set up to play. We would highly recommend you to any setting looking to enhance their experiences for the children in their care. Thank you!”

Review from Laura Ellis, Early Years Teacher at Little Knellies Nursery, The Abbey School in Reading

”The children had a fantastic time. I would thoroughly recommend this company to early years settings and schools in the area. The day was themed around our own planning and early learning goals. They ran Circle Times and games and even made observations for us which can be added to our children’s Learning Journey records. They have lesson plans in place up to the end of Year 2 Primary!”

Review from Beenham Pre-School, Berkshire

”We had a fantastic workshop for our nursery, reception, year 1 and year 2 classes. The children loved the freedom, opportunities, interaction and open ended possibilities that the sessions provided. We would highly recommend Katie!”

Review from St Michaels CE VA Primary School, Bishops Stortford, Hertfordshire

”Pop Up Play Village is an amazing addition to our week. The children absolutely love it. It is brilliantly organised, links to our planning and builds on the children’s prior learning. Pop Up Play Village provides unique and exciting opportunities for developing children’s oracy, understanding and social skills”

Review from The Winchcombe School, Berkshire

“Jackie visited our SEND school today and the children (and staff!) had an amazing time. The children all engaged with the different role play areas. This experience allowed our children to develop their communication, social skills and understanding of the world. We look forward to having Jackie visit us again in the near future”

Review from a teacher in a SEND school, Plymouth

”We booked Pop Up Play Village to visit our three Reception Classes for the day with an eco/recycling theme. The day went really smoothly and the children (and staff!) thoroughly enjoyed it. Katie was amazing and couldn’t have been more helpful and organised. The resources she brought along were brilliant and suited the theme perfectly, the children had a great experience which inspired some lovely activities and writing back in class. I would recommend Pop Up Play Village and if we have another opportunity we will be inviting you back. Thanks so much!”

Review from Whitmore Primary School and Nursery, Basildon, Essex

Contact us for more information and for a personalised quote!