The Sydney Opera HousePlay Award
An annual award for a primary school with a practical idea that has made demonstrated positive impact in children’s lives through play.
Award Amount: $10,000
About the Play Award
The Sydney Opera House has an ongoing and rich connection with play and its intrinsic connection to the arts and learning. From the inspiring stories on our stages, to the artists who enliven our Centre for Creativity, we are committed to equipping artists and audiences with the capacity and skills to embed play in their classrooms, creative and civic spaces, and everyday life.
It is in this spirit that we continue our relationship with renowned educator Professor Pasi Sahlberg, and present the Sydney Opera House Play Award.
This annual Play Award (2024-2027 inclusive) will be given to a primary school with a practical idea that has made demonstrated positive impact in children’s lives through play. This idea may include, but is not limited to, new learning program, redesigned physical environment, or community partnership that has contributed to children’s opportunities to play.
In 2024, the Sydney Opera House Play Award recipient was Avonvale Primary School, Western Australia.
The recipient of the Play Award will be announced by the Sydney Opera House on International Play Day, 11 June 2025. The Play Award is made possible by the generous donation of Professor Pasi Sahlberg.
Pasi Sahlberg and William Doyle, 'Let the Children Play: How More Play Will Save Our Schools and Help Children Thrive'Play is how children explore, discover, fail, succeed, socialize, and flourish. It is a fundamental element of the human condition. It's the key to giving schoolchildren skills they need to succeed – skills like creativity, innovation, teamwork, focus, resilience, expressiveness, empathy, concentration, and executive function.
How to apply
- The Play Award is open to any primary school in Australia.
- The Award will be given to a school with a learning program, student/s or teacher/s that has made a remarkable contribution to play in learning with demonstrated positive impact to the school community.
- To be considered for the Award you must submit a written application as outlined below.
- A school can only make one submission. Additional submissions will not be accepted.
- Applications will be accepted in written format through the Sydney Opera House website. More detailed info below.
- Schools, projects, or programs can be self-nominated.
- It is highly recommended that at least one external reference letter is provided with your application. This could be from a student, parent or education authority.
- The Award will be judged by an invited panel of up to 4 external consultants including Professor Sahlberg, and the Sydney Opera House Creative Learning team.
Applications are now open and will close Friday, 11 April 2025.
The winner will be announced on International Day of Play on Wednesday, 11 June 2025.
For enquiries, please email Jenn Blake, Creative Learning Producer with the subject heading ‘Play Award 2025’.
To Apply please respond to the following 3 questions, across no more than 2 A4 pages.
You can attach up to 4 additional image files and/or 3 minutes of video to support your written application.
- Tell us about your play idea or learning program.
Consider the following in your answer:
- How did your play idea get started?
- What is the purpose of your idea?
- What does your idea look like in practice?
- Tell us about the impact of your play idea.
Consider the following in your answer:
- What affect has your idea had on learning?
- What affect has your idea had on wellbeing?
- How does your idea address inequalities of learning?
- How would the Play Award ($10,000) benefit your program and/or school?
Get involved
We are seeking supporters to grow the scale and ambition of the Play Award. If you are interested in donating towards this award and making play central to our lives and learning, please email Tamara Harrison, Head of Children, Families and Creative Learning.
Frequently asked questions
The award is given to further enable the successful program so that it can grow or evolve into a larger or more comprehensive program that center play-based learning.
This award is for practical projects. Therefore research about play will not be funded. However if the project is play based research where the research is undertaken through practice then this will be considered valid for nomination.
You can use this Award in any way to raise additional funding or partnerships. The award is unencumbered other than it needs to be spent on the program that was nominated.