Some past playful actions in schools…
Whilst Mod was created in 2025, Playful Activism has been developing for many years and lots of actions have taken place throughout those years in schools across the UK.
Actions normally follow a ‘Gifting’ framework. Gifting centres the recipient in the action, asking the playful activists involved to think about what would engage the recipient to have the best conversation about the change the activists want to see.
Playful actions are unique and a codename is chosen as part of the process - something those involved all have in common - it becomes the front for their Playful Activism.
Below are a few stories from actions that have taken place
As part of the Young Coneys in Tower Hamlet’s Primary Schools
Codename: Cat - At Kobi Nazrul Primary, Young Coneys wrote a storybook about a teacher and DJ named Trinity. This was used to ask their actual teacher to set up a reading club for students on a bus in the playground that was waiting to be put to good use!
Codename: Donut Girls - At Osami Primary, Young Coneys created a manifesto for playing together, and a Play Box was given to the playground team for break times.
Codename: Friday Fries - At William Davis Primary, Young Coneys will become Play Ambassadors, and have been trained up to teach new games to other children in the playground, along with some illustrations to put on the floor and show where to stand. This was in response to the group feeling that the playground wasn’t exciting enough.
Codename: Loud Voice - At Hague/Stewart Headlam primary, Young Coneys created flower chains to decorate the school gates and make the playground more colourful and joyful – and also to thank the school caretakers for their work. An audio message was shared in a school assembly!
Codename: Milk - At Canon Barnett primary, Young Coneys created a game for the class to play, in which everyone made origami cats to thank the school office team for their support over the year. This resulted in 30 origami cats being delivered to the office!
Codename: Spicy Chicken - At Thomas Buxton school, Young Coneys created a games book for all KS2 classes filled with games the group liked or had created – all based around Article 31 of the UN Convention on Human Rights. It also contained a poem written with the group.
Codename: Strawberry Sweets - After learning about Melati and Isabel Wijsen’s work on single use plastics, students at Swanlea School created a systems map of their school’s waste disposal and used it to (1) convince their Deputy Headteacher to lobby local food packaging waste services to transform their disposal model, and (2) encourage sharing their progress with other local schools towards borough-wide collaboration and change.
Codename: Sick - Students at Mulberry School for Girls tackled their school’s consumption of fast fashion by creating an on-campus swap shop building a sustainable student-led model for years to come.
Codename: Fruffles - Students at Mulberry Shoreditch targeting waste pollution, they created a handmade necklace made from recycling plastic with a flower inside. They delivered it to the Heateacher together with a USB that had a powerpoint on the impact of plastic on the natural world and asking the school to investigate ways in which the school could reduce their waste.
Wapping High School
The first group of Wapping High students focussed on ocean health and their schools’ responsibility to recycle waste responsibly. They delivered an assembly to the headteacher with posters and ways to update the bin designs across the school.
The second group of Wapping High students explored the issue of food waste; both its contribution to the greenhouse effect when disposed of improperly, and the enormous amounts of natural resources that then go into producing more. They decided to deliver their ‘gift’ to the dinner team to begin a conversation on options to cut down on food waste in the preparation of their school meals.
Swanlea School Swanlea students focussed on the lack of knowledge amongst their peers about their roles and agency within the climate crisis. They lobbied their head of year, appealing to his love of football and team sports, with a framed photograph, poem and presentation with an ask to embed climate learning into their curriculum.
