Projects

Playtopia — Loose Parts Playground

Site Activation & Playworker

Playtopia is a loose-parts play space at Runcorn State School, offering children a dynamic, self-directed environment shaped by curiosity, creativity and community. Grounded in playwork practice, Playtopia protects and promotes children’s Right to Play within the school day, recognising that school is where children spend much of their time and deserve access to joyful, meaningful play. The space evolves through children’s ideas, mark-making and constructions, creating a living landscape that reflects their cultures, identities and stories. Low-cost, sustainable and inclusive, Playtopia shows how child-led play can transform school environments and strengthen wellbeing, belonging and joyful learning.

This is 100% a grass roots project and is the result of 10+ years of fierce advocacy work in this school space. For children; by children.

Follow Playtopia

An adult holding a yellow slide beneath a Playtopia Loose Parts Playground banner, with crates and play materials on the grass.
Wooden pallets, plastic crates and tyres, including a large tractor tyre, arranged against the Playtopia fence.A small play space filled with kitchen utensils, colourful balls, feathers, containers and an old telephone.Blue and black crates stacked into a counter with plates and wooden cutlery on top.Cable spools, tyres, a green crate and a yellow play panel arranged beside the school building.Overhead view of crates, a flexible blue hose, old telephones and loose parts beside a wooden pallet partition.A yellow slide supported by a tyre and a green plastic channel on the grass.Two wooden pieces on the grass, one decorated with a face and alphabet letters and the other with handwritten words.Two wooden pieces decorated with circles, squares and a rectangle, arranged on the grass.A large tyre with wooden poles and a red connector beneath a suspended yellow net.A wooden pallet enclosure draped with blue fabric and decorated with ribbons tied to tall branches.Timber offcuts on a pallet supported by stacked tyres, beside crates and an old telephone.Stacks of wood rounds on an upturned storage tub, beside colourful construction pieces and a chalk-covered board.A keyboard, toy shark, wooden boards and a cable spool arranged beneath a tree.A panel labelled “this is not a Store!” with a drawn heart, topped with a metal pot and a plastic bucket.Wooden dowels and rounds sorted into metal bowls and trays on a cable spool table.Colourful construction pieces, keyboards, fabric and cardboard spread along an outdoor path.A handmade wooden sign reading “LOOSE PARTS” leaning against an orange cone in front of a painted fence.Cardboard boxes and cut panels beside a tyre, including a large handwritten “FREE CHOICE” sign.