The School of Play review
A school-wide SEL curriculum pairing classroom activities with daily wellbeing check-ins.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
The School of Play offers a digital social-emotional learning and wellbeing curriculum for schools serving Kindergarten through Year 9, including special-education adaptations. Its annual school licence brings together classroom activities, teacher resources, family and student access, and wellbeing tools. The curriculum covers emotional literacy, empathy, relationships, resilience, identity and student agency. Schools looking for a play-based program with both classroom and family participation will find its scope relevant; it is not aimed at schools seeking a curriculum for older students.
The curriculum includes 25–40 weeks of activities and maps to 16 education and SEL frameworks. Teachers have video tutorials, success criteria and facilitator guides, while AITSL-aligned professional-development hours support teacher learning. Better Us Schools adds daily wellbeing check-ins, 50+ wellbeing badges, adventure maps and parent wellbeing reports. This makes the offering broader than a set of classroom lessons: it also includes ongoing check-ins and family-facing reporting. Schools should consider whether that combined curriculum-and-dashboard approach fits their wellbeing priorities.
According to the published pricing details, school licences start at 1,000 AUD per school per year and are charged as flat annual whole-school licences, rather than per-user fees. Starter, Growing, Established and Large are the named plans; each lists the full K–9 curriculum, family and student access, AITSL-aligned PD hours and the Better Us Schools dashboard. The product is paid, and the free play lesson is a lead-in resource rather than a free licence. It runs on web and iOS, with cloud and mobile deployment, guided implementation, email and documentation support, and GDPR compliance. Schools seeking a no-cost tier or a program beyond Year 9 should look elsewhere.
The School of Play pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Provides 25–40 weeks of play-based curriculum activities for K–9.
- Maps curriculum to 16 education and social-emotional learning frameworks.
- Adds daily check-ins, badges, adventure maps and parent wellbeing reports.
- Where it doesn't
- Requires a paid annual school licence; there is no free plan.
- Focuses on Kindergarten–Year 9 rather than older students.
- The four plans list the same core curriculum and access highlights.
The School of Play fact sheet, pricing and score →
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