Play Learning Life CIC

During the first 10 months of the financial year 2024-25, the CIC’s workload was scaled back significantly as the CIC’s main subcontractor, Director Julie Mountain, carried out an external, full-time, fixed-term contract for an independent health charity. As a result, the range of projects and the turnover for this financial year is reduced compared to previous years. Play Learning Life CIC’s activities in 2024-25 included: OUTDOOR LEARNING AND PLAY PROJECTS In January 2025, Play Learning Life CIC was invited to become a freelance partner of OPAL CIC, which delivers the UK’s leading school playtime improvement programme. PLL CIC director Julie Mountain began Mentor training to allow her to deliver OPAL programmes to schools around the South-East. TRAINING AND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT PLL CIC Directors Julie Mountain and Felicity Robinson wrote monthly articles for the professional early years magazine, Nursery World. During 2024, the articles focused on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths) outdoors; a new series began in January 2025 focusing more specifically on outdoor maths in the early years. PROMOTING THE VALUE OF OUTDOOR LEARNING AND PLAY Promoting the value of outdoor learning and play is not usually an income generating activity for Play Learning Life CIC, unless we are participating in conferences or webinars or writing for journals. Sharing what we know and learning from other outdoor and education professionals is a crucial part of the social enterprise’s ethos and without it, our ability to impact the lives of children and young people would be much less. PRO-BONO SUPPORT FOR OUTDOOR LEARNING AND PLAY Play Learning Life CIC provides a variety of free services, advice and information for children, schools, communities, organisations and the wider public, in support of its mission. Alongside regular volunteering in local schools to support outdoor learning initiatives, several more formal roles are carried out: Felicity Robinson represents independent practitioners on the Council for Learning outside the Classroom’s School Grounds Sector Group. Now retired, Peter Carne remains an Advisor for the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom. Julie Mountain is a school governor and volunteers at a local school, providing weekly outdoor learning sessions and co-ordinating school grounds maintenance volunteers. PLL director Mary Jackson (Learning through Landscapes’ Head of Education and Communities) is also an ISGA Leadership Council member. Mary is a Trustee of the Wildlife Gardening Forum.