The RTPI Placemakers interactive boardgame is a hands-on classroom activity that introduces pupils to the real-world challenges of town and community planning. Through role-play and decision-making, pupils work together to plan a shared space while considering the needs of different people in the community. The boardgame encourages collaboration, empathy, and creative thinking – all while exploring key planning themes such as sustainability, transport, housing, and green spaces. This page outlines a range of ideas for using the tool in the classroom, either as preparation for an RTPI ambassador workshop, or as a follow-up activity.
Getting started – Introducing the roles
Before playing the game, take time to introduce the different characters and roles featured in the boardgame. Pupils will take on the roles of planners, local residents, business owners, developers, environmentalists and others, each with their own priorities and perspectives. These roles help pupils understand how planning decisions affect many different people and groups in society.
This introduction can be done as a whole class or in smaller groups. Ask pupils to consider what their character might care about most – for example, a local resident might want green spaces and quiet streets, while a developer might be more focused on profit and infrastructure.
- Priming task - Before the planner’s visit, ask pupils to consider what challenges their character might face when trying to influence a planning decision. They can write a question to ask the planner about how real people with similar priorities are involved in decision-making.
- Follow-on task - After the planner’s visit, revisit the roles discussed and ask pupils to identify one skill the planner mentioned—such as negotiation or balancing different interests—and match it to a character in the game. Pupils can explain how that skill would help their character reach a goal.
Playing the boardgame – Group challenge
The main boardgame activity works best in small groups of 4–6 pupils. Each pupil adopts a role and contributes to a group discussion about how to develop an area of land. Using a set of planning cards and maps, groups must agree on how to shape their shared space, balancing different needs and priorities.
Encourage pupils to think carefully about:
- Who their decisions will benefit
- What compromises they might need to make
- How their plan supports the wider community
Once a group has agreed on their final plan, they can present it to the rest of the class or create a visual map of their proposed development.
- Priming task - Before the planner’s visit, while playing the boardgame, pupils can note any difficult decisions their group faces. They should prepare one question to ask the planner about how professionals handle similar dilemmas in real planning scenarios.
- Follow-on task - After the planner’s visit, pupils can return to their group plans and reflect on how their decisions might change with the knowledge they gained. For example, they could adapt their plan to reflect planning constraints or community feedback the planner discussed.
Plenary discussion – What did you decide?
After the game, bring the class together to reflect on their decisions. Each group can explain their plan and why they made the choices they did. You might prompt discussion with questions such as:
- Which roles found it easiest or hardest to get what they wanted?
- Did anyone have to change their mind?
- How did the group reach a final decision?
This activity supports oracy skills, teamwork, and understanding of democratic processes and compromise.
- Priming task - Before the planner’s visit, during the plenary discussion, encourage pupils to identify one aspect of their decision-making they found tricky—such as balancing costs and community needs—and frame a question to explore how planners deal with this in real life.
- Follow-on task - After the planner’s visit, pupils can reflect on which group roles most closely matched real planning skills described in the session. They can discuss how their group dynamics related to collaboration, compromise, and communication in professional planning.
Planning Meeting Role-Play
To deepen the experience, you can follow up the boardgame with a more structured role-play of a town planning meeting. In this activity, pupils stay in role and debate a fictional planning proposal – such as building a new leisure centre, housing estate, or shopping park on a piece of green land.
Each pupil prepares a short speech from their character’s point of view. After hearing from all sides, the class discusses possible outcomes and votes on a final decision. This activity supports persuasive speaking, critical thinking, and empathy for different points of view.
- Priming task - Before the planner’s visit, ask pupils to prepare a speech from their character’s point of view and include a specific challenge they believe the real planner might face. They should write down one question about how planners manage conflicting demands.
- Follow-on task - After the planner’s visit, when creating their speeches or running the meeting, the students can apply one new skill or insight shared by the planner—such as managing public opinion, analysing data, or navigating regulations—and explain how this shaped their decisions.
Design your own community – Mapping task
As a follow-on task, pupils can use what they’ve learned to design their own community from scratch. This could be done using large sheets of paper, map templates, or digital tools (where available). Pupils can draw roads, housing, green areas, schools, shops, and more – all while explaining the reasoning behind their design choices.
Encourage them to think about:
- Accessibility and transport links
- The location of key services and green space
- How their town supports people of all ages and abilities
This activity can be extended with short written reflections or group presentations.
- Priming task - Before the planner’s visit, pupils can sketch a rough layout of their community and highlight one area they are unsure about—such as where to put a school or how to handle traffic. They should prepare a question for the planner about how they make those kinds of decisions.
- Follow-on task - After the planner’s visit, pupils can include in their map a principle or skill the planner discussed—like prioritising accessibility, planning for future growth, or managing environmental impact—and label these with short explanations.
Creative writing – Life in our new town
To link with literacy, pupils might write a creative piece set in the town they helped plan. This could be a diary entry from a resident, a news article about the new development, or a short story about a day in the life of a town planner. This allows pupils to reflect on the impact of their decisions through storytelling, while reinforcing ideas around planning, community and future living.
- Priming task - Before the planner’s visit, pupils can begin a piece of creative writing based on their town and imagine one major challenge the town is facing. They can prepare a question for the planner about how a real planner might solve this issue.
- Follow-on task - After the planner’s visit, pupils can incorporate a planning skill or real-life challenge discussed in the session, such as negotiating with stakeholders, managing budgets, or responding to emergencies.