Playful Green Planet and its impact

Through the Playful Green Planet Network, we aim to reach 100 sites and 100,000 children by 2030. This is how we’re doing so far.

Since January 2025, the two pilot sites in Dundee and Hull have…

Playful Green Planet is making a clear difference in these places. We’ve summarised this under our four impact areas: the change we want to see for children, communities, nature, and policy and practice.

For children

We want to see confident and capable children connecting, caring and regenerating their communities and the natural world.

Children have demonstrated increased confidence and connection to nature and their community. Teachers and parents have reported increased curiosity and care for nature, as well as improved independence and positive behaviour.

I didn’t know you could eat plants; the chives were the best part of the visit, I’m going to tell my mummy you can eat them.

Child involved in Playful Green Planet activity

For communities

We want to see schools, early years settings and community cultures that foster nature and community connectedness through play.

Playful Green Planet has built a community through children’s increased confidence and engagement, forming new, unlikely friendships. Teachers and parents have noted improvements in behaviour and focus after children spend time connecting with nature.

The children look forward to this all week, they don’t stop talking about it and their behaviour here is totally transformed. They are calmer and more self-regulated; it’s the highlight of their week.

Teacher involved in a Playful Green Planet activity

For nature

We want to see green spaces delivering positive ecological gains.

Stewards and their communities are documenting the biodiversity of Playful Green Planet sites. They feed this data into the collective database supported by the National Education Nature Park, and the Natural History Museum uses it. For example, researchers have already recorded 70 different species of plants, insects, and animals at the Dundee site.

I didn’t know there were different trees… I can see the apples and the acorns…

Child involved in a Playful Green Planet activity

For policy and practice

We want to see systemic change driven by evidence, influencing and a scalable Playful Green Planet model.

Supported by the diverse and expert practitioners and advisors on our Advisory Committee, Playful Green Planet continues to gather evidence and insights from children, stewards, families, and educators to inform its development and support collective impact. Current findings strongly support a replicable, place-based model that communities and settings across the country can adapt.

Explore Playful Green Planet

Playful Green Planet

The RSA’s Playful green planet intervention co-creates nature-based urban learning spaces and activities for children to foster nature and community connectedness and care through creativity.

The Playful Green Planet Network

The RSA is inviting organisations working with children aged 0–11 in urban areas to apply to become a Playful Green Planet Steward.

Playful Green Planet stewards

A network of organisations from the RSA Fellowship and beyond is forming to ensure children everywhere have access to nature play.