The PLAY Experience at TOPP KIDS

Training our educators. Guiding our pedagogy. Strengthening children’s daily experience.

At TOPP KIDS, we believe quality out-of-school care does not happen by accident. It is built intentionally through strong relationships, thoughtful environments, skilled educators, and a clear pedagogical framework.

That is why TOPP KIDS uses the PLAY Experience Training and Curriculum Framework as a foundational guide for how we train, support, and grow our educators and how we shape daily practice across our programs. The PLAY Experience was created specifically for school-age and out-of-school care educators, addressing a long-standing gap in sector-specific training for those working with middle-years children.

This framework helps us ensure that our programs are not only safe and well-managed, but also engaging, developmentally informed, inclusive, and deeply rooted in quality pedagogy.

What is the PLAY Experience?

The PLAY Experience is a comprehensive school-age care training model designed by out-of-school care specialists for out-of-school care educators. It blends professional learning, reflective practice, child development theory, emergent curriculum, trauma-informed practice, and licensing-aligned standards into one practical framework that educators can actually use in real life.

At TOPP KIDS, this matters because school-age care is unique. Children in the “critical hours” before and after school need more than supervision. They need spaces where they can PLAY, GROW, LAUGH, and LEARN through responsive relationships, meaningful experiences, and environments that honour who they are.

The PLAY Experience gives our team a shared language, a shared standard, and a shared direction for delivering that care well.

Why TOPP KIDS uses this framework

TOPP KIDS uses the PLAY Experience because we believe our educators deserve training that is built for the reality of school-age care.

Too often, professional development in child care has been broad, generic, or heavily focused on early years. The PLAY Experience was developed to respond directly to the needs of educators working with school-age children and to raise the standard for practice in out-of-school care.

For TOPP KIDS, this framework helps us:

train educators with consistency and depth
connect theory to real daily practice
strengthen pedagogical leadership across programs
create more welcoming, inclusive, and responsive environments
improve quality, safety, and confidence in educator practice
build a stronger professional identity for school-age educators

It is not just a course. It is part of how we build excellence across our organization.

How the PLAY Experience shapes educator training at TOPP KIDS

The PLAY Experience is built as a hybrid professional learning model with:

12 self-paced eLearning modules
4 reflective practice sessions with a Certified ECE trainer
discussion guides and learning community opportunities that support reflection, conversation, and shared growth

At TOPP KIDS, this means our educators are not simply told what to do. They are supported to understand why it matters, how it connects to children’s development, their own personal values, and how to apply it intentionally in practice.

This framework helps guide our educators in areas such as:

child development and middle-years growth
emotional regulation and belonging
emergent programming and observation
constructivist learning environments
group care, supervision, and safety
trauma-informed practice
behaviour guidance and conflict resolution
licensing, health, and safeguarding
professional identity and sector leadership

In other words, the PLAY Experience helps us train educators who are not only more knowledgeable but also more thoughtful, reflective, and prepared.

What this means for families

For families, the PLAY Experience means your child is cared for by educators who are being guided by a clear, intentional framework built specifically for school-age care.

That shows up in the everyday details:

Your child enters a program designed to feel safe, welcoming, inclusive, and engaging. Educators are trained to understand child development, support emotional regulation, guide behaviour with care, build community, and create experiences based on children’s interests and needs. They are also trained in supervision, health and safety, child protection responsibilities, and licensing expectations.

The result is a stronger daily experience for children—one where relationships matter, curiosity is encouraged, and quality care is not left to chance.

The PLAY Experience is also designed to improve outcomes for children by helping programs create safer, more inclusive environments and deeper relationship-based engagement.

What this means for schools

For schools, the PLAY Experience means TOPP KIDS is committed to operating as a thoughtful, professional, and pedagogically grounded partner.

We understand that school-age care works best when it complements the school community, reflects strong standards, and supports children in ways that are developmentally appropriate and relationally responsive.

Because the PLAY Experience includes modules on developmental understanding, environment design, supervision, conflict resolution, trauma-informed practice, licensing readiness, health and safety, and family engagement, it strengthens the consistency and professionalism of our team across sites.

This supports stronger collaboration with schools and helps ensure that the care children receive before and after the bell is aligned with high standards of practice.

What this means for partners and community stakeholders

For potential partners, funders, collaborators, and community leaders, the PLAY Experience reflects something important about TOPP KIDS: we are serious about building quality from the inside out.

We are not only focused on program growth. We are focused on educator growth, pedagogical integrity, and long-term sector leadership.

The PLAY Experience is designed to strengthen consistency, build workforce capacity, improve program quality, and support long-term sustainability in out-of-school care. It also aims to create learning communities, increase educator retention and confidence, and improve outcomes for children, families, and organizations.

That makes it more than internal training. It is part of a larger commitment to raising the quality bar in school-age care.

The pedagogy behind the framework

At TOPP KIDS, pedagogy is not just what we say we value. It is how we think about children, learning, relationships, environments, and the role of the educator.

The PLAY Experience helps anchor that pedagogy by drawing from:

child development theory
trauma-informed practice
emergent curriculum
constructivist learning
children’s rights
Alberta licensing standards and professional practice expectations

This means our educators are trained to see children as capable, growing individuals with interests, emotions, rights, and unique ways of engaging with the world. It also means our educators are taught to build environments and experiences that respond to children rather than simply manage them.

That shift is critical. It moves practice from supervision alone to intentional, relationship-based school-age pedagogy.

What educators learn through the PLAY Experience

The framework includes twelve modules that collectively build the foundation of high-quality out-of-school care practice.

Educators are supported in understanding core theories such as Three-Brain Theory, Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, social-cognitive learning, and children’s rights. They explore middle-years development, the Zones of Regulation, FLIGHT, emergent programming, guided discovery, constructivist environments, loose parts, family engagement, supervision systems, trauma-informed practice, conflict resolution, behaviour guidance, licensing requirements, health and safety, abuse prevention, and professional involvement in the sector.

The platform includes practical learning tools such as easy-to-navigate module menus, facilitator and cohort community chat spaces, a policy bank, Indigenous perspectives, and video-supported learning content, all of which help make the training more usable and practice-focused. The platform also reinforces that this is not abstract theory alone; it is structured to support real educator learning and implementation.

Our commitment at TOPP KIDS

At TOPP KIDS, using the PLAY Experience means we are committing to more than compliance.

We are committing to quality.
We are committing to educators who continue learning.
We are committing to pedagogy that guides practice.
We are committing to children who deserve more than basic care.
We are committing to families and schools who deserve confidence in the environments surrounding their children.

The PLAY Experience supports that commitment by helping create programs that are safer, more inclusive, more reflective, and more consistent. It also supports the long-term goal of building stronger leadership and stronger standards across the out-of-school care sector.

Looking ahead

The PLAY Experience is positioned as a new benchmark for out-of-school care training and is intended to support long-term excellence across the sector. The document also notes continued partnership-building and future leadership training expansion, helping strengthen the sustainability and reach of the model over time.

For TOPP KIDS, that aligns directly with who we are and where we are going.

We want to empower tomorrow’s leaders.

We want children to PLAY, GROW, LAUGH, and LEARN.

And we know that starts with the quality, confidence, and care of the educators who walk alongside them every day.

Learn more

If you are a family, school, or potential partner who would like to learn more about how TOPP KIDS uses the PLAY Experience Training and Curriculum Framework within our programs, we would love to connect.

Together, we can continue building safe, inspiring, relationship-based spaces where children and educators thrive.