Bring quality early education to your neighbourhood with our Play Sense Franchise Program. The franchise program is our flagship offering and includes everything you need to start a profitable play school in your region. Whether you are a teacher who wants to take the next step in your career, a therapist who wants to boost your practice income or an entrepreneur who recognises the profitability of premium education, our franchise program is designed to meet your unique needs.
Some ECD programs are exempt from registration and licensing, depending on the type of program and where and when it operates.
In South Africa, as an example, the government currently requires that individual playschools with more than 6 children register with the Department of Social Development. Since Play Sense playschool groups accommodate for 6 or less children, they are not required to register.
Play Sense is certified as a Registered Early Childhood Development Program with the Department of Social Development, but individual franchisees need not register their playschool unless they plan on running multiple groups on one site. Our Play Sense PLUS programme allows for franchisees to purchase more than one franchise and is a popular way to grow your franchise business.
No, we do not assign specific territories at Play Sense. Because our group sizes are small, we can have multiple playschools running in the same area at any given time. It all depends on local demand from parents. During the application process, we will discuss the viability of a Play Sense franchise in your area and you will be given more information about other franchisees operating in and around your region. If you’d like to see where some of our schools are currently operating, you can find our current groups here.
Once you have signed your contract, you will enter into our current training intake. Training generally runs over 3 weeks and is done online at your own pace. Depending on whether or not your venue is secured, your playschool can start as soon as you have completed training and have at least 2-3 children enrolled, and unless there is a pipeline of prospective parents in place prior to you signing, it can take a few months to grow your playschool.
The Play Sense program is advertised nationally and digital marketing is also targeted in specific regions where our franchisees operate. Play Sense prioritises marketing for teachers with the lowest numbers in their groups to assist them in growing their business, and also runs online toddler workshops frequently to generate parent leads for our franchise playschool owners.
We cannot guarantee how long it will take to get a group going, nor are we able to guarantee the number of children in your group, but what we can guarantee is that you have the backing and support of a trusted brand. Our most successful franchisees are great brand ambassadors that believe in our philosophy and work hard to establish themselves in their community.
Play Sense Franchisees operate from a variety of venues – either their own homes, a rented space (such as a church or garden flat) or they will be hosted by a Play Sense parent. Play Sense can either assist in advertising for a parent host home for your micro-playschool, or if we have a parent host home waiting for a teacher in your territory we can assist in pairing you with a host. Host homes cannot always be guaranteed, but many of our franchisees run their groups very successfully from parent host homes.
Host homes come in all shapes and sizes, but the indoor room where the playschool takes place must be a minimum size as dictated by local regulations. We recommend a floor space of about 4 x 4 metres. This can be a shared living space in the home (sitting room or dining room, etc.) or a separate room (converted garage, sun room, etc.). There also needs to be a fenced outside area where the children can play safely, with water hazards and pets screened off. All host homes are thoroughly checked and assessed for safety before being approved as a venue, and the teacher is responsible for the monitoring safety hazards daily.
Play Sense playschools take place weekday mornings, Monday to Friday, from 08h30 to 12h00. As a Play Sense teacher you can adjust the start and end time as needed, whilst ensuring a full 3 ½ hour program is maintained, but essentially it is a part-time, mornings-only commitment. Our playschool program requires a minimum of 3 days per week, although it is recommended that teachers do not limit their days as this can limit their potential to fill and grow their playschools. Many parents choose to start on 3 days and will usually increase days to 4 or 5 as their child settles in group.
Our proprietary curriculum is developed by Occupational Therapists and parenting experts (and mothers) to teach toddlers in an age appropriate way. Research has proven that guided imaginary play is the best way children age 2 to 4 learn language, social skills, and self-regulation.
Our all-important imaginary playplan is weaved into our daily curriculum, along with sensory & art activities, music & movement and outdoor play to ensure an enriched morning of play-based learning. If you’re all about play, then our curriculum was designed just for you! To hear more about the Power of Play, take a look at what our Director of Education has to say in our ECD Masterclass on Playfulness.
Teachers are required to invest in our Play Kit for their franchise playschool. The kit contains everything the teacher needs to run the program and the equipment is very specifically aligned to the activities in our curriculum.
Training is conducted online over a 3-week period and can mostly be done in your own time except for two live Q&A sessions with our co-founders. You may be required to do 2 weeks of job shadowing at one of our schools and you will also enter into our Accelerator Program to ensure 1:1 training, guidance and support as a new franchisee. For more on what our training covers, please check the above training section where each module is detailed in full.
