Permission to Play: Making Time for Curiosity, Connection and Curriculum Outdoors

What gets in the way of taking learning outside?
Time. Risk. Confidence. Curriculum.
Permission to Play is about pushing past those barriers.

Hosted at Wittunga House in the beautiful Wittunga Botanic Gardens, this immersive experience invites you to slow down and reconnect with why play matters. It’s a chance to be outside, get hands-on, and remember how learning can feel – joyful, curious, and connected.

When we make time for nature-based play, children grow the dispositions that count: curiosity, collaboration, resilience, and connection to place. They build knowledge through inquiry, and develop the capabilities that sit at the heart of both the EYLF and the Australian Curriculum.

But making that shift can feel hard. Permission to Play is here to help you navigate the practicalities, build your confidence, and create the conditions where outdoor learning isn’t an extra- it’s embedded, intentional, and powerful.

This full-day, hands-on workshop is for early years and primary educators who want to take learning outside and deepen their outdoor pedagogy (lunch and morning tea included).

Limited to just 20 participants per day, you’ll choose from two standalone sessions:

• Monday 23 June
• Tuesday 24 June

You’ll leave with practical strategies to:

• Identify and mitigate the barriers to outdoor learning and play
  Identify challenges such as time, risk, confidence or curriculum pressure, and explore practical tools to navigate them.
• Build confidence and capability in planning for outdoor learning
  Strengthen your knowledge, lean into curiosity, and explore how play builds brains, supports wellbeing, and drives engagement.
• Connect play to curriculum outcomes through dispositions, capabilities, and inquiry
  Discover how playful, nature-based learning aligns with the EYLF, SA Curriculum, and Australian Curriculum - and why it matters.
• Capture student voice and make learning visible
  Use nature journals, floor books, and documentation strategies to honour children’s thinking, show impact, and reflect on learning together.
• Explore the research and evidence behind outdoor play
  Unpack the growing body of research that supports outdoor learning as a powerful, developmentally rich, and pedagogically sound approach.

Whether you’re just getting started or ready to go deeper, Permission to Play will leave you confident, curious, and ready to step outside.

Places are limited – book now to secure your spot.

Travelling regionally?  Contact us to discuss subsidies.