Great Ormond Street Hospital Educational Platform Brings U.K. Characters Together

“Play is a superpower at the fingertips of all children, and it’s especially important at times of change or worry, when building our children’s resilience can help them to cope with life’s challenges,” says Laura Walsh, head, play, Great Ormond Street Hospital. “While the last 18 months have seen children adapt to circumstances none of us could have imagined, this September they’ll also have the ordinary childhood experiences likes starting school and making new friends. 

Using our years of experience as play specialists at GOSH, we have teamed up with GOSH Charity and some much-loved children’s characters to create our Power of Play hub and bring to life the transformative power of play. We’re really proud to offer parents free, trustworthy, practical tips and resources to help their children embrace play to overcome

This new play hub will offer children the chance to tackle difficult social situations and life milestones with the help of some of the biggest characters in the kid space. A dedicated exclusive episode of “Hey Duggee” is written to help kids understand anxiety; Beano’s Dennis the Menace comic will illustrate how to come to terms with cancer diagnoses; a special 150th anniversary poem for Lewis Carroll’s Alice Through the Looking Glass will tackle separation anxiety after Tweedledee loses Tweedledum; and CBeebies’ audio play of “JoJo and Gran Gran” will raise social awareness for kids to understand visible differences. 

“We hope families across the UK have as much fun using the resources on our hub as we had in creating them with the hospital’s Play team and the team at adam&eveDDB,” says Nick Radmore, deputy director, marketing, GOSH Charity. “Dennis and Gnasher were childhood heroes of mine, so I hope their story all about the Power of Play helps parents and their children cope with life’s challenges, big and small.” 

With 66 percent of parents polled stating they were concerned by the effects of the pandemic on their children, and with 74 percent of parents reporting play has helped their kids cope in uncertain times, the new GOSH Charity education and entertainment platform is a timely and socially progressive platform for some of the biggest names in the U.K. character and entertainment space.