Playivity - Cohort I Founder Spotlight

Who is Natalie?

Natalie Weir is a PhD researcher at the University of Derby, a physical literacy expert with over a decade of experience in sport and movement development, and someone who has spent her entire career trying to get children moving more.

She's worked at British Orienteering for twelve years, holds a Masters with Distinction from Loughborough University, serves as Early Years Lead for the International Physical Literacy Association, and was a national finalist in the Vitae Three Minute Thesis competition. When Natalie says children aren't moving enough — she has the research to prove it.

Why is Natalie building it?

Children spend up to 70% of their time in education settings being sedentary. The problem isn't that schools don't care — it's that they don't have the data to know what's happening, when, and with whom. You can't fix what you can't measure.

Natalie has spent years inside this problem. Playivity is her answer to it.

What did Natalie build?

Playivity is a wearable activity tracker and interactive play system designed to transform how schools understand and respond to childhood inactivity. It combines child-friendly wearable devices that track movement levels, interactive play posts that respond when children engage with them, and a data dashboard that gives teachers real visibility into who is moving, how much, and when.

The prototype is already built. Natalie brought it to pitch day and demoed it live in the room — one of the most energetic and engaging pitches of the day.

Where is Natalie taking it?

Playivity is now moving into schools. The technology works. The data is compelling. The problem is real and well-documented. Natalie is now focused on scaling pilots, getting more children using the system, and building the evidence base that will take Playivity into schools across the country.