A crucial element was the addition of wooden figures, personalised so there was one to represent each child in the class. “They loved having a ‘mini me’,” says Ruth. “They felt real ownership. They’d move their figure around and say, ‘I’m going here’ or ‘I’m doing this’.”

Ruth also used the model to support phonics, a method used to teach reading. “I’d make up little stories, like for the ‘s’ sound I’d have Sarah and Simon sitting on the sofa seeing a spider. The next day, I’d ask the children what we’d been learning about and they’d repeat the story back to me. They came on leaps and bounds.”

The open-sided design meant several children could sit together and play quite happily, fostering good relationships in the classroom.

Such was the success at Ruth’s school that she was asked to create further versions for use in other local schools. Ruth became aware that the name ‘the imagination station’ was already being used as a brand and so she came up with a new name – Interplaylands.

When the pandemic lockdown came, Ruth saw immediately that many children with special educational needs would struggle to access the kind learning being offered online.

This marked a new chapter in the life of her creation – she decided to make personalised Interplaylands for children at the school in Peckham where she now worked that could be used while on a video call with a speech and language therapist. Themes matched the interests of each child – for example one child loved cars and so his Interplayland included a ‘land’ with roads and garages.

She also found that personalised Interplaylands could be used to support children facing trauma and grief. “There was one little boy in our school whose father had left just before lockdown and he was very angry,” says Ruth. “I made an Interplayland for him which included a figure of his father.

He had a wonderful 16-year-old brother who played with it with him every day. They acted out things like going on outings with his father. It seemed to calm him down and gave him a way to explore his feelings.”

Then there was the little girl who had lost her big sister to a rare disease. Ruth made an Interplayland with figures of both girls. The older sister’s figure had gold on her wings and the younger girl could put the figure in the Interplayland’s upper level and say that she was in ‘heaven’.

During the pandemic, Ruth also found that older members of her church were interested in making Interplaylands of their own to help them connect with grandchildren they couldn’t see. The wooden bases were ordered and laser cut by a local business and then people would decorate them with themes to suit their grandchildren’s tastes. “It was a difficult time for everyone and I’m pleased that Interplaylands could in some small way help bridge that gap,” says Ruth. “People couldn’t see their grandchildren but they could put their energy into doing something for them.”