[2026 | Malaysia Report 5] "Changing Schools Through the Power of Play" — The person who created OPAL and the international organization that supports it
Introduction
In the latter half of June 2026, I visited Penang, Malaysia, for the first time in two years with my daughter, who is in her final year of elementary school!
We spent two years living in Penang as a mother-child study abroad pair from 2022 to 2024.
My daughter attended a local international school, and
I began learning about PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic education), a new school subject in the UK, as well as SEL (Social and Emotional Learning) originating in the US, and hypnotherapy, all of which are practiced there,
which led me to develop a strong interest in mental well-being education.
(From there, I started a company to import and sell the teaching materials and activities I encountered, which is now in its third year of operation,Little Pineapple.)
During this revisit, I am interviewing local schools, educational environments, bookstores, and teaching material shops to see what changes and continuities can be observed after two years.
In this series, I will cover,
Children's mental well-being
Social and Emotional Learning (SEL)
PSHE (Personal, Social, Health and Economic education)
Creating environments for play and learning
Education for coexistence in a multicultural society
and other themes, reporting on the practices, teaching materials, and school cultures I have seen and heard in Malaysian educational settings.
As a well-being education researcher, I am particularly interested in the question: "How are environments created where children can safely nurture their 'hearts' and be themselves?"
Along with the classroom lesson programs, I would like to explore hints for education and child-rearing in Japan by focusing on various elements that work on a child's "emotional growth," such as the play environment, interpersonal relationships, school culture, and collaboration with parents.
In the previous report, I shared the state of OPAL (Outdoor Play and Learning) practiced at St. Christopher's International School (SCIPS) in Penang, where my daughter was taken care of for two years.
As I touched upon briefly in the introduction,
this year, in March 2026,
the Japanese translation of a book by Michael Follett was published by Gakubunsha.
"Changing Schools Through the Power of Play: How to Create Recess Times Overflowing with Excitement"
It has now been published.
This time, I would like to introduce this book and the IPA (International Play Association) Japan Branch, which handled the translation and supervision, in a little more detail.
Learning how to handle emotions through play
It is often said that play is a child's "work." As they make rules with friends and create play while sometimes clashing, various emotions such as joy, frustration, and confusion naturally arise. Children gradually learn how to accept and handle those emotions precisely through play.
About the author, Michael Follett
The author, Michael Follett, is a person who has been involved in creating "play" environments in schools in the UK for many years. He was originally a teacher with qualifications in early childhood education, and later built his career as a playworker in the community while also serving as a school improvement advisor for the government.
From 2000 to 2005, he served as a strategic play officer for the local government in the Bath and North East Somerset region. From 2005 to 2011, he worked in the school improvement department of the South Gloucestershire local education authority, where he was involved in creating play policies for local schools. It is said that his experience in the three fields of playworker, teacher, and school improvement advisor became the framework for the later OPAL program.
In 2011, when government school improvement services were scaled back, Follett launched the system he had nurtured within the local government as an independent non-profit "Community Interest Company (CIC)." This is the current OPAL (Outdoor Play and Learning). Since then, it has grown into a leading organization in this field, supporting schools in the UK that want to improve the quality of their recess times, and similar initiatives are spreading overseas in New Zealand, Canada, Spain, France, Poland, and elsewhere.
For more details, check out the YouTube channel.
His books include "Creating Excellence in Primary School Playtimes" published in 2017, and the volume translated into Japanese this time summarizes the background of thinking about play (Part 1) and concrete ideas for schoolyard layout and resource creation (Part 2), based on over 20 years of accumulated action research in school settings. You can find a video about the introduction here.
What is the IPA (International Play Association)?
The supervisor of the translation for this book is the Japan Branch of the IPA (International Play Association).
IPA is an international NGO established in 1961 out of a sense of crisis regarding the loss of children's play spaces due to urbanization in Europe. It was initially launched as the "International Playground Association," but later shifted its focus to the idea of protecting and fostering play as one of children's fundamental human rights, leading to its current name (the abbreviation IPA has been retained).
At the heart of its activities is the concept defined in Article 31 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: "Children have the right to play." In collaboration with international organizations such as UNESCO and UNICEF, member organizations around the world are working on creating play spaces, policy advocacy, and research in their respective regions.
About the IPA Japan Branch
The Japan branch was established in 1979. It was formed after members interested in IPA and people involved in creating adventure playgrounds gathered across Japan, and the need for organized activities was confirmed following a lecture series featuring guests invited from IPA headquarters.
Currently, members from a wide range of backgrounds belong to the organization, including practitioners in play spaces, educators, researchers studying child development at universities, and experts in urban planning and park design. They play a role in bridging domestic and international knowledge through participation in world conferences and the publication of translated versions of journals and original newsletters. The supervision of the translation for this "Changing Schools Through the Power of Play" was also realized as part of these activities.
Events featuring OPAL are also held.
See this feature article in the Education Newspaper as well.
The next installment will be on Friday, August 21st.
We will take a break from the Malaysia report and
return to the global "Emotion Items" report! Please look forward to it⭐
Let's take care of ourselves and get through these remaining days of extreme heat!
