The Planning For Play Adventure Play Bus Tour tickets are available and tickets selling fast!

The bus tour will be on the 7th August 2026 supporting the Planning For Play: Play & The Mind event the very next day!

We will be rolling out the 4 amazing (and new) stops over the next few weeks!

T1ckets can be purchased here: https://www.trybooking.com/DKDKB

Do not miss out this sold out fast last year!

Click HERE To Book Your ticket!

The 2026 installment of Planning for Play has been themed… Play & The Mind! This topic aims to broadly approach all a range of topics from play and brain, play philosophy, play and psychology and even p,lay and spirituality.

“Early Bird” Tickets are now available for the 2026 instalment of Planning For Play and will remain available until the end of March…

Our host venue for the 2026 event Royal On The Park has also offered a discount on any rooms booked for the event. To acquire the booking code for this offer please email play@topa.au (subject to room availability of course).

2026 Planning for play - Play and the mind keynote speakers!

SANDI PHOENIX

Session Title: A Brain Motivated To Play

Sandi Phoenix is the founder of Phoenix Support for Educators, now leading a national team who work alongside education and care services across Australia to strengthen wellbeing, inclusion and quality practice. An educator by background, she began studying psychological science in 1998 and has spent her career translating research from psychology into practical, relationship-based guidance aligned with the National Quality Framework. Sandi’s ability to bridge theory and day-to-day practice led to the creation of the Phoenix Cups Framework, a model used widely by educators and teachers nationally and internationally to support children’s wellbeing and build educator capacity to respond to behaviour through humanistic psychology, positive psychology and neuroscience-informed approaches. She presents at conferences in Australia and internationally, and continues her postgraduate study in Neuroscience and Mental Health at UniSC to deepen the translation of brain-based wellbeing science into practice.

GERALDINE HARRIS

Geraldine’s Session: Time to Play - Recapitulative Play and Temporal Dignity

Dr Geraldine Harris brings over 30 years of experience in early childhood leadership, specialising in play, place-based approaches, and integrated service provision across Australia and England. She holds playwork and early childhood qualifications, has developed a suite of neuro-bioloical playwork training and has co-authored a book chapter on Playwork leadership. Her understanding of play was deeply shaped by her PhD supervisors, Dr Stuart Lester and Professor Jennifer Cartmel.

Geraldine’s PhD research in place-based leadership explored the relational interplay between ecological, social, and individual conditions, revealing how these dynamics influence children’s development, partnership health, and leadership wellbeing within collective action. She is also the author of Foundations for Families: A Birth to Three Framework of Effective Practice, a neuro-informed guide supporting early development and wellbeing and lead of the development of the evidenced based Wings to Fly 2.0 training.

As Executive Director of Pathways to Resilience, Geraldine champions children’s rights and wellbeing through play-centered, relational, and neuro-informed approaches, advocating for collective practices that restore temporal dignity, nurture co-regulation, and create enriched environments for children, families, and educators.

DR SAURUBH MALVIYA

Session Title: The Playfulness Among Us: The Thread Between The Inner Child, And The Child In Front…

Dr Saurubh Malviya is a consultant, educator, and researcher specialising in childhood experiences. His doctoral research explored children’s voices and how they make meaning of their world. His work focuses on bridging early childhood experiences with their lasting influence across the lifespan, supporting both children and adults to deepen self-awareness and develop a richer understanding of themselves and each other.

As the founder of We Belong Education, Dr Malviya has supported over 500 organisations through tailored professional learning and has presented at national and international conferences. His work brings together academic insight and lived practice, resonating with educators, leaders, and parents alike. Committed to advancing quality practice, Dr Malviya is also co-author of Beyond the School Day and continues to contribute to research, practice, and professional dialogue within the sector.

Planning For play 2026 Speakers!

FAITH GRIFFITHS

Faith’s Session: Autonomy in Children, Initiative in Adults

Faith is a playworker and OSHC professional who completed her Bachelor of Behavioural Sciences in 2024. Initially commencing in the industry as an early childhood educator and later moving across to the OSHC space, Faith is driven to create environments and build relationships with children that foster an internal locus of control and support children to develop positive self-identities.

CLARE WALTON

Clare’s Session: Risking It – Transformational Art in Education and Public Space

Dr Clare Walton is a socially engaged artist, playworker, and artist educator. Her arts practice focuses on collaborating with children and young people to promote their voice and support them to engage as creative active citizens in their community. A multi-disciplinary artist Clare's work embraces the concept of adventure play as a primary tool to promote child-led collaborative work that questions the current social dynamics that place children and young people in positions of limited power. Clare currently works at the Devonport Regional Gallery in Tasmania at the Creative Learning and Public Programs Officer.

CHRISTOPHER PHOENIX

Playing with Reality: A Philosophical Magic Show

Christopher Phoenix is an university lecturer, author, keynote speaker, researcher, and wellbeing specialist. He is the co-author of the Phoenix Cups book and tours nationally and internationally delivering the Phoenix Cups framework through engaging and entertaining workplace wellbeing workshops and keynote presentations. His sessions are the perfect balance of education and fun, inspiring audiences to prioritise their own wellbeing. Christopher lectures at Griffith University, and is currently undertaking his Ph.D., exploring theories on authenticity and how we can create meaningful lives while meeting our human needs.

What if play isn’t just something we do, but a way of experiencing reality itself? This interactive session blend’s philosophy and mentalism, to explore how our perceptions create our reality. Through surprising demonstrations and audience participation, Christopher shows how play opens curiosity, wonder, and new ways of experiencing the world. This is a lively and humorous session where philosophy comes to life. Participants are invited to see play, not just as activity, but as a way of being that sparks curiosity, wonder, and new possibilities.

BREAKING THE CYCLE THROUGH LOCAL PLAY - NEIGHBOURHOOD BACKYARDS & CHILD LED FREE PLAY IS REVERSING INTERGENERATIONAL TRAUMA FOR LOCAL FIRST NATIONS CHILDREN AND COMMUNITY

Playworker and Site Manager - Tyana “I am From the Minyunbal Tribe, Tweed Heads. I am a mother of 5 beautiful children. I have the pleasure of working alongside my daughters Tahnie and Jimara. I have been working at Joomunjie Land for 2yrs and have been living in the community for 10yrs. Witnessing the growth of our children who attend this space has been the most rewarding experience for me. The relationships they create and most importantly, watching their confidence grow. The relationships I have personally created with these children has been rewarding. For some kids to respect and feel so safe with me, they now call me Aunty”.

Playworker - Tahnie and Jimara “My name is Tahnie and my sister is Jimara. We are proud Minyunbal Women from Tweed Heads the Bunjalung Nation. We are immensely passionate about our culture, community and play spaces for children to be un-apologetically themselves. My (Tahnie) overall goal is to change lives and be a role-model to the younger generation. I am big on 'play isn't a privilege, it is a human right'.

Playworker - Zoe “I am a mother of 6 children. From Yamatji country in Western Australia. Joomunjie provides us a sense of belonging, not just as a workplace and place to play but a community. Knowing that my children and all children in our community have a safe place where they are accepted, acknowledged, and encouraged to be who they are, and enjoy themselves and open up their minds and imaginations through play. Our neighbourhood backyard, Joomunjie is what every neighbourhood needs”.

KYLIE KEANE

Kylie’s Session: Holding Space, Hidden Lenses: How our bias impacts play

Kylie is a highly experienced Playworker and advocate, business owner and consultant at Keen About and is dedicated to championing children and young people’s right to play. Kylie’s journey into Playwork happened the way it does for so many … stumbling into it and then fuelled by instincts and curiosity. Kylie spent the better part of a decade embedding a Playwork approach, grounded by the Playwork Principles, as the Educational Leader at FOOSHC in Canberra who together achieved an ‘Exceeding’ twice and an ‘Excellent’ rating three times. Kylie’s advocacy for Playwork, and play as a fundamental right, has had a lasting impact in Australia, including contributing to the integration of Playwork into My Time Our Place: Framework for School Age Care in Australia (V2.0). In 2025 Kylie was appointed Co-chair of Play Australia’s Playwork Forum and commits to holding advocacy at the heart of all she does. Kylie’s professional journey spans the UK, the US, and Australia, where she has not only presented on, but fully immersed herself in, the global landscape of play and Playwork. Kylie is passionate about supporting individuals and organizations to create the ideal physical and psychological conditions for play and considers it an absolute privilege to contribute to this field and is honoured that she gets to do this each and every day.

ANGUS GORRIE

Angus’s Sessions: Virtues-Based Leadership: Supporting Virtuous Team Practice

Great staffed play spaces don’t succeed on physical and spatial design alone; they are brought to life by the adults within them. This session explores how virtues-based leadership can intentionally shape educator and playworker teams to create rich, responsive, and meaningful play environments. Grounded in the belief that practice flows from character, we’ll examine how leaders can cultivate virtues such as curiosity, courage, patience, and trust within their teams.

Drawing on insights from neuroscience, we’ll also explore how virtues are not just philosophical concepts but embodied patterns that shape brain function and behaviour. When educators experience a sense of purpose, belonging, and alignment with shared values, it activates motivation, strengthens relational trust, and supports more attuned, responsive interactions with children. In contrast, environments lacking this clarity can lead to stress-based responses and reactive practice.

Participants will engage with practical strategies for embedding virtues into team culture, supporting reflective practice, and navigating the tensions that arise in playwork settings such as risk, uncertainty, inclusion, and professional judgement. We’ll consider how leadership can move beyond compliance and policy toward nurturing dispositions that enable high-quality play support.

Designed for educators, playworkers, and leaders, this session invites you to think deeply about who we are as practitioners, not just what we do, and how shaping virtuous teams is essential to creating environments where play can truly thrive.

SIOBHAN KENNEDY-COSTANTINI

Siobhan’s Session: The Regulating Power of Play: Using Play to Settle the Body, Calm the Mind, and Transform Behaviour

Dr Siobhan Kennedy-Costantini is a developmental psychology specialist and Circle of Security facilitator who cares deeply about children's attachment, temperament, and emotion regulation. Through Science Minded, she translates cutting-edge developmental research into practical strategies for parents, educators, and early learning professionals across Australia. Her work focuses on bridging research and practice to promote secure relationships and children’s social-emotional wellbeing.

ARETA FARRACE

Areta’s Session; Reclaiming the Play Instinct: How Rediscovering Our Nature Play Impulse Transforms Pedagogy.

Areta Farrance is an early childhood teacher, forest school leader, and founder of Bush Kindy Teaching & Learning on Jaggera Country, Logan, Queensland. With over two decades in education and training settings, she brings a deeply relational, community-based approach to nature play. Through the activation of green spaces for play, Areta creates inclusive programs and professional development that reconnect educators, families, and children with nature—fostering belonging and playful inquiry that champions community leadership.

ERIN EDWARDS

Erin’s Session: Play and Mental Health in Education: Beyond Learning to Wellbeing

Erin is a registered play therapist, teacher and psychotherapist with 25 years’ experience in early childhood. She holds a Bachelor of Education (Early Childhood) and a Master of Child Play Therapy. Erin specialises in child-centered play therapy and filial therapy, with a focus on attachment, trauma-informed care, therapeutic play, and neuroaffirming practices. She is passionate about equipping educators and caregivers with practical strategies to support holistic development and connections. Her work is grounded in unconditional positive regard and the belief that children thrive when they are seen, safe, and supported. Erin runs "The Playful Life" in Brisbane, QLD and specialises in supporting children between birth and 7 years and their families and support systems.

ISAIH TUETA

Isaih’s Session: Faith in Play: Play as Pilgrimage.

Isaih has over 15 years experience as an on the floor playworker. As his roles have developed within the industry, he has juggled both Playworker responsibilities as well as being the service program manager for Camp Hill OSHC, a service with a capacity of 310 children. In his extensive tenure within the industry, Isaih has honed his expertise in practically implementing Playwork Principles and pedagogies within the OSHC sector. Since the formation of The Outsiders, Isaih has taken this passion beyond Camp Hill to the wider childhood care and education sector, and his very own suite of Outsiders OSHC services. Isaih's knowledge is grounded and extensive and can be a benefit to anyone working with children.

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