News

29 May, 2018

Nyt samarbejde skal sætte legen på dagsordenen i dagtilbud

Danmark, 29 Maj 2018 - Legen skal være førsteprioritet i børnenes hverdag. Derfor går LEGO Fonden, to kommuner og UC Lillebælt nu sammen om ambitiøst udviklingsprojekt.

12 April, 2018

LEGO Foundation conference calls for a disruption of traditional education systems

Denmark, 12 April 2018 - The LEGO Foundation welcomes global education and childhood development experts for its annual conference at LEGO House in Billund, Denmark

11 December, 2017

The LEGO Foundation brings the power of play to Mexican children

Mexico, 12 December 2017 – the LEGO Foundation launches commitment to reach 1 million Mexican children with playful learning experiences by 2022

20 November, 2017

The LEGO Group and the LEGO Foundation join UNICEF’s #KidsTakeover campaign to trumpet every child’s right to play

Billund, 20 November - LEGO® #KidsTakeover event for World Children’s Day to let children direct advert on the Power of Play

26 May, 2017

Takalani Sesame and the LEGO Foundation team up to celebrate World Play Day and promote children’s learning through play

26 May, 2017, Johannesburg, South Africa - Afrika Tikkun, along with Takalani Sesame Muppets Kami and Neno, host over 200 children and their families to highlight “Play Every Day” and “Play Well and Be Happy” initiatives

26 May, 2017

LEGO® Professor of Play in Education, Development and Learning announced

26 May, 2017: The University of Cambridge has appointed a world-leading researcher as the first LEGO Professor of Play in Education, Development and Learning.

10 May, 2017

Charlotte Sahl-Madsen appointed as new CEO of Capital of Children

10 May, 2017: Charlotte Sahl-Madsen will start as new CEO of Capital of Children as of 15 May.

15 March, 2017

John Goodwin appointed as new LEGO Foundation CEO

Billund, Denmark, 15 March 2017 – The Board of Directors today announced that John Goodwin has been appointed as the new CEO of the LEGO Foundation effective April 1st.

26 January, 2017

The LEGO Foundation endows MIT Media Lab Fellowships to honour the legacy of Seymour Papert

26 January, 2017: New graduate student fellowship programme announced at Media Lab event celebrating the life and work of Seymour Papert.

13 January, 2017

Hanne Rasmussen steps down as CEO of the LEGO Foundation

13 January, 2017: Note from Thomas Kirk Kristiansen, Chairman of the LEGO Foundation Board of Directors.

1 November, 2016

New initative that develops children’s skills through play launches in one of South Africa’s lowest educationally resourced provinces

1 November, 2016: Sesame Workshop and the LEGO Foundation’s multi-media initiative - “PLAY WELL AND BE HAPPY” - set to reach at-risk children and caregivers in the Eastern Cape.

26 September, 2016

The LEGO Group, the LEGO Foundation and UNICEF launch campaign to celebrate and inspire play and learning

26 September 2016 - The LEGO Group, the LEGO Foundation and UNICEF today launch a new campaign to help celebrate parents’ special play moments with their children and to inspire families to explore new ways to help young children play and learn.

2 August, 2016

Honoring Seymour Papert

Professor Seymour Papert, one of our most inspiring and influential visionaries on children’s creativity, play and learning, passed away on July 31, 2016.

5 July, 2016

Scaling play-based learning innovations

The Re-Imagine Learning Globalizer Summit, organised in partnership between the LEGO Foundation and Ashoka, took place at the LEGO London Hub, on 17–19 June 2016. The Summit aimed to help accelerate selected innovations within learning through play.

20 May, 2016

The LEGO Foundation and Center for Universal Education at Brookings launch joint project: Skills for a Changing World

20 May, 2016: Perhaps the most important question for us all now is how to help young people around the world cultivate breadth of skills. What types of teaching and learning experiences will build the competencies that young people need? How should we seek to accelerate progress to deliver on the world’s aspirations, and global commitments, to doing just that?

10 May, 2016

An interview with Pasi Sahlberg, Finnish educator, author and scholar

10 May 2016, Billund, Denmark: The LEGO Foundation has interviewed Pasi Sahlberg, Finnish education expert and visiting professor of practice at Harvard Graduate School of Education, about his view on quality learning, school systems and standardised tests.

26 April, 2016

Play as a field for research

26 April, 2016: Creativity, engagement and lifelong learning are three key focal points for PLAYTrack, a new research project at the Interacting Minds Centre at Aarhus University in Denmark. The project is funded by the LEGO Foundation, which is supporting this collaborative venture with a sum amounting to DKK 12 million. Over the coming five-year period, the Interacting Minds Centre will work closely with the LEGO Foundation on developing new methods to investigate and document how play supports learning.

21 April, 2016

Finnish reasearcher wins LEGO Prize for his struggle agains assessments. An interview by Folkeskolen (Danish journal for teachers)

On Tuesday 12 April, the Finnish school researcher Pasi Sahlberg was announced as the winner of the LEGO Prize 2016 for his struggle against standardised tests in school systems worldwide. And the event came with a message for Denmark: “Get teachers to create their own assessments and use those to develop the Danish schools,” says the Finnish researcher. The interview below has been written by Folkeskolen (Danish journal for teachers).

15 April, 2016

Teachers are key to quality learning

15 April, Billund, Denmark: If teachers receive greater recognition and more tools to work with when they teach, children’s learning will improve. This was one of many conclusions at the 2016 LEGO Idea Conference, where attendees focused on problem solving, creativity and collaboration in the pursuit of quality learning. The conclusions of the conference will be injected into the global education debate and major platforms such as the UN General Assembly.

13 April, 2016

Sesame Workshop and the LEGO Foundation announce new partnership to promote children's learning through play

13 April, 2016, Billund, Denmark: Sesame Workshop and the LEGO Foundation announce partnership to promote children's learning through play.

12 April, 2016

Former schoolteacher wins LEGO® Prize 2016

12 April, Billund, Denmark: Former schoolteacher Pasi Sahlberg is the winner of the LEGO® Prize 2016. Finnish Sahlberg wins for his work to improve the quality of children’s education worldwide. The price was presented at the LEGO Foundation’s annual LEGO Idea Conference in Denmark, which gathers academics, practitioners and representatives from educational organisations.

12 April, 2016

More learning through play suggested for UN Sustainable Development Goals

12 April, 2016, Billund, Denmark: Child education needs more creativity, collaboration and critical thinking - all skills that are rooted in learning through play, says co-chair of the education workgroup of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network, Hirokazu Yoshikawa. International experts attending this year’s LEGO® Idea Conference will discuss quality learning with the aim to inject the viewpoints into the global education debate.

8 April, 2016

LEGO Idea Conference focuses on UN goal

8 April 2016, Billund, Denmark: In early April, the 2016 LEGO Idea Conference gathers 300 academics, practitioners, policy makers and representatives from international organisations to discuss what quality learning is and how it can be put into action. The conference will be partly based on a UN goal focused on ensuring the quality of children’s learning worldwide.

27 January, 2016

The LEGO Foundation and Tsinghua University team up to support creativity and play in Chinese schools

27 January 2016, Billund, Denmark: LEGO Foundation and Tsinghua University, China, have signed an agreement to establish Laboratory for Lifelong Learning in Beijing to support creativity and play in the Chinese educational system from pre-school to university.

21 December, 2015

Bangladesh, Uganda and Tanzania - a new 4.7 million USD partnership with BRAC

21 December, 2015: As the importance of early learning gains support, there is a growing need to ensure that practice in the sector reflects this emphasis on whole child development and the skills and capacities children need to thrive. In light of this, the LEGO Foundation is pleased to announce a 3-year, 4.7 million USD partnership with BRAC focused on promoting the importance of learning through play in Bangladesh, Uganda and Tanzania.

21 December, 2015

Interview with Tinkering Studio: What do we want? More replicants or a next generation of students who can think for themselves?

21 December, 2015: Interview with Mike Petrich and Karen Wilkinson, designers at Tinkering Studio — an “immersive, active, creative place” at the Exploratorium museum of science, art, and human perception in San Francisco, California, USA.

16 December, 2015

The LEGO Foundation and UNICEF Iraq support conflict-affected children in Iraq through play

16 December, 2015, Baghdad, Iraq: UNICEF Iraq received a contribution from the LEGO Foundation that will help give around 50,000 children in Iraq a chance to play and learn.

30 October, 2015

30 years collaboration towards empowering children to be creative thinkers

29 October 2015, Boston, USA: MIT Media Lab celebrates its anniversary with both the LEGO Group and the LEGO Foundation by its side.

22 October, 2015

Play matters! University of Cambridge and the LEGO Foundation launch new research centre and professorship.

22 October 2015, Cambridge, England: The University of Cambridge and the LEGO Foundation will examine the role of playfulness in learning through a new centre and associated professorship.

2 October, 2015

LEGO Foundation Announces Commitment At Clinton Global Initiative

In late September, LEGO Foundation CEO Hanne Rasmussen participated in the Clinton Global Initiative 2015 Annual Meeting.

7 September, 2015

UNICEF and LEGO Foundation provide conflict-affected children a chance to play and learn

Kyiv, Ukraine - 7 September: Today, UNICEF and the LEGO Foundation launched a local initiative to provide conflict-affected children in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions of Ukraine with high quality play materials to continue their development and learning. Children in 48 schools, 62 kindergartens, and 10 Community Protection Centres located in government-controlled areas will benefit from this initiative.

7 August, 2015

Can play-based learning fill America's skills gap?

7 August, 2015 - A nation with some of the most prestigious institutions of higher learning in the world houses a college-educated population that significantly underperforms in the areas of literacy, numeracy and problem solving. Where does the problem start?

6 July, 2015

Ever younger academic education is not quality early learning

6 July, 2015 - What happens if your child races and gets to school first, being the youngest student in class? Unlike racing a car or running at the Olympic stadium, starting first in formal learning is not a winning strategy.

2 June, 2015

LEGO Foundation speaks about education and quality jobs at OECD in Paris, France

2 June, 2015, Paris, France: Why is that the educational system do not prepare us for tomorrow’s jobs? However excellent your education was at school and how well you were rewarded for your memorising knowledge, within a few years of entering the workforce, a gap will be opening up between what you need to know, what has recently been discovered, and what you were taught while at school.

15 April, 2015

LEGO Foundation Awards Carla Rinaldi, President of Reggio Children, 2015 LEGO Prize

15 April, Billund, Denmark – Today, at its annual LEGO Idea Conference, the LEGO Foundation awarded Carla Rinaldi, Italian pedagogista and president of Reggio Children - Loris Malaguzzi Centre Foundation, its 2015 LEGO Prize. Since 1986, individuals or organisations that have made an outstanding contribution to the lives of children have been awarded the LEGO Prize.

13 March, 2015

Partnering to support children's rights and development

NEW YORK, 13 March, 2015: Children’s rights and early learning are to receive a boost through two new global partnerships between the LEGO Group, the LEGO Foundation and UNICEF, the celebration of which took place today in New York.

10 December, 2014

LEGO Foundation commits to Invest in US Challenge

WASHINGTON, USA, 10 December 2014: The LEGO Foundation answers President Obama’s call to support high quality early childhood development through a new initiative supporting scalable and outstanding models in partnership with New Profit.

12 November, 2014

New CEO in the LEGO Foundation

It is with great pleasure we jointly announce that Hanne Elisabeth Rasmussen will be joining the LEGO Foundation as new CEO from 1 March, 2015.

6 November, 2014

The LEGO Foundation and Ashoka announce 10 Champions of the Re-imagine Learning Challenge

PRESS RELEASE: Doha, Qatar - At the WISE Summit in Doha, the LEGO Foundation and Ashoka have announced the 10 winning entries of a global challenge aimed at transforming the way the world learns.

27 August, 2014

Re-imagining Learning in partnership with Ashoka

The learning through play network is growing with 632 entries submitted in our Changemaker Challenge.

Involving children in environmental development

June 1, 2013

Students from Amager Faelled School, Copenhagen, were involved in a building session as part of the LEGO Foundation's participation in the 2013 EFC Conference — featuring perspectives centered on "Sustainable cities: Foundations and our urban future."

LEGO Foundation initiates the International School of Billund

August 8, 2013

To serve the needs of this community and to underpin Billund as an attractive place to work and live, the LEGO Foundation is proud to support the establishment of the International School of Billund.

A Network about Learning through Play

11 November, 2014

This case report, published by the LEGO Foundation in collaboration with Winnovation, inspires us to think about a new space for supporting a community of engaged actors who are passionate about children, learning and creativity, and who believe that educational systems are pivotal to making real and sustainable changes.

Play replaces punishments for pupils in Mali

April 14, 2014

In schools in Mali the pupils are to sit quietly while teachers review the alphabet with them, and to keep a classroom of perhaps 50 children under control, the teachers – out of desperation – use the rod to discipline the children. 2014 LEGO Foundation IDEA Conference focused on play as an important teaching tool.

Sowing the seeds for a more creative society

26 August, 2014

"In today’s rapidly-changing society, nothing is more important than the ability to think and act creatively. But many activities in children's lives, whether these be lessons in the classroom or games in the living room, are not designed to help children develop as creative thinkers".

Play Needs Champions. Now.

April 8, 2014

BILLUND, Denmark, 8 April 2014: The LEGO Foundation welcomes more than 250 participants to the IDEA Conference designed to bring together some of the world's brightest minds within play. The aim is to create an actionable agenda to make quality play a priority in homes, classrooms, workplaces and communities.

First ever official LEGO® Model of the UN completed by Ban Ki-moon

September 20, 2013

NEW YORK CITY, United States, 20 September, 2013; United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon today added the last LEGO element to a large scale LEGO model of the United Nations’ Headquarters.

Re-Imagine Learning Challenge Launched at LEGO Foundation IDEA Conference

April 10, 2014

Billund, Denmark, 10 April 2014: The LEGO Foundation and Ashoka – the largest network of social entrepreneurs worldwide – are teaming up to transform the way the world learns. At the LEGO Foundation IDEA Conference, the Re-imagine Learning Challenge was launched as part of this new partnership.

Using LEGO bricks as an instrument in Early Childhood Development

May 27, 2013

In 2012, the LEGO Foundation made an agreement with BØRNEfonden to support the five African countries in which the foundation works, by supplying 600 LEGO Charity boxes to each country. In their work to strengthen the children and young people in poor countries to become independent, competent human beings who inspire and contribute to a positive change in their community, BØRNEfonden has now started using LEGO bricks as one of several instruments in early childhood education.

Crazy Divas´ Robotic Adventures

May 20, 2013

From an indigent South African Township to the World Robot Olympiad in Malaysia

The unexpected role of CREATIVITY in solving the world's biggest problems

April 9, 2013

"On average, 98% of three year olds have genius levels of creative thinking. That means almost everybody here today was a creative genius as a child. Between 0-3 you developed in a way that meant your brain constantly took new and different approaches to the issues you faced in the play pen and the high chair. But ask yourself – do you think you’d score that well if you were tested today? Would you consider yourself a creative genius? You may well be, but the reality is that just 2% of people over the age of 25 retain that level of creativity."

2013 LEGO Prize Awarded to Right To Play CEO Johann Koss

April 9, 2013

The LEGO Foundation has awarded Right To Play Founder, President and CEO Johann Koss the 2013 LEGO Prize. The award carries with it a USD $100,000 prize, which will benefit Right To Play programmes worldwide.

LEGO Foundation donates record DKK 4,8 million to Denmark’s Collection

February 11, 2013

Again this year the LEGO Foundation has teamed up with DR Ramasjang and the Danish libraries to encourage all Danish children to do good deeds that were rewarded with a donation for Danmarks Indsamling (Denmark’s Collection).

The LEGO Foundation growing in both size and ambitions

January 28, 2013

Taking the first steps towards becoming a global champion of children’s quality learning, the LEGO Foundation is undergoing a period of significant strengthening and growth.

The LEGO Foundation to help organize annual European Foundation Centre conference

January 20, 2013

Established in 1989, the European Foundation Centre (EFC) is an international membership association of foundations and corporate funders primarily from Europe.

LEGO Foundation CEO Spoke at Clinton Global Initiative

September 25, 2012

At the September 2012 Clinton Global Initiative in New York, a number of corporate leaders, nonprofit and foundation heads, and government leaders met to discuss this year's theme: "Designing for Impact."

Strong Collaboration to Help Underprivileged Children in Kuala Lumpur

November 5, 2012

On November 12, 2012, the day after the WRO finals in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, the LEGO Foundation will host an event for underprivileged children living in the host city.