What Happens After the Training Ends? The DUPLO Challenge Story

Written by Thea Wynne (Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning Lead)

The DO MORE Foundation has just completed its second year of rolling out a DUPLO Play Box programme at community level, and the insights and lessons learned continue to deepen and give us insights into using blocks as resources for early learning through play. There was limited targeted funding to the ongoing support of this programme. So how did it continue to grow without additional budgets for in-person training and monitoring? The answer tells us about the value of feedback and participation.

The story began with the original rollout over 2023 and 2024. The distribution of 1,800 DUPLO Play Boxes and practitioner training to 682 early childhood development (ECD) centres was an important milestone; the real vision was always to grow the programme beyond the intial resource drop. DUPLO Play Boxes are designed as a long-term investment into classrooms and communities but these remain a resource until practitioners active them into learning.

That raised an important question to our National Programmes Team: once the training was complete and the resources had been delivered, how do we ensure that practitioners continued to use them effectively? More importantly, how do we support the ongoing sharing of skills and embed these practices into ECD programmes for years to come?

The answer is the DUPLO Challenge.

The Challenge was created to recognise and reward practitioners who put their learning into practice. It encourages participants to showcase how they have applied the skills gained during the initial training and continue to build on their learning through local Young Child Forums and Communities of Practice. In return, practitioners have the opportunity to win additional resources for their centres, shifting the focus from simply attending training to demonstrating learning in action.

Traditionally, a practitioner reports to an implementing partner organisation, who reports to x. Too often, that's where the information journey ends, with valuable learning flowing in only one direction. We wanted to create a feedback loop that allows learning to travel back to the practitioners who generate it.

To bring the Challenge to life, we turned to a platform that practitioners already knew and trusted: WhatsApp. Already used successfully across a range of DO MORE's programmes and activities, our WhatsApp-enabled platform, EDGE (powered by Tregter), offers a familiar, accessible and cost-effective way to stay connected with practitioners. With few barriers to entry and strong existing uptake, WhatsApp has proved the ideal space for the DUPLO Play Box Challenge to thrive.

And so, each month, a simple message arrives to the practitioner's WhatsApp. Something like, "Can you build something that flies? How can DUPLO help children learn about transport? What questions did the children ask? What surprised you during the activity?"

Then comes the Challenge.

Practitioners are invited to share how they have applied their training and used DUPLO with the young children in their own contexts. They submit photographs of their creations and reflect on what happened during the activity. Over a three-month period, submissions are recognised through awards such as Best Effort, Best Tower, and Most Creative Integration of DUPLO into the curriculum.

While the Challenge is designed to be fun, engaging and motivating, it also provides something incredibly valuable: real-time insights directly from the classroom. Each photo, reflection and creative activity reflects the ownership, creativity and adaptability of practitioners. Together, they provide a window into how learning from the original training continues to be embedded in practice and brought to life in ECD settings across South Africa.

One of the most exciting outcomes has been seeing practitioners move beyond just reporting on an activity. They are now reflecting on what children learnt, what they observed and how they can adapt their practice. One practitioner's feedback: "The kids use they [their] fingers to count the blocks one by one. Maybe [next time] I must first start with only 3 numbers and then go up to number 5."

The DUPLO Challenge is not about collecting data for its own sake. It is about creating opportunities to acknowledge good practice, celebrate innovation, and recognise the dedication of practitioners who bring learning to life every day. In this way, recognition becomes more than an award. It strengthens motivation, fosters peer learning, and helps build a growing community of practice around play-based learning.

The Challenge has shown us that learning does not have to end when a programme does. By creating opportunities for practitioners to share their experiences and learn from one another, the conversation continues long after the initial training has ended.

For us, this is what scaling wide looks like. It is less about reaching more people with something new, and more about intentionally deepening the value of what already exists.