For schools · ICSE / CBSE / SSLC
A chemistry method that has been in classrooms since 1996.
The Language of Chemistry teaches the notation every board’s syllabus assumes and none of them sets aside time to teach: symbols, valency, formulas, balanced equations. It has been used in Kochi classrooms for thirty years, and two examination bodies have written in appreciation of the method.
- A sample copy
- One per school, on request, with no obligation.
- Bulk pricing
- Quoted against your intake, not a list price.
- Syllabus mapping
- The book’s topics set against ICSE, CBSE and SSLC by class.
- Delivery before the year starts
- Printed and dispatched from Ernakulam. Tell us your intake date.
Appreciated, and in print since 1996
- CISCE
- 18 December 2002
- NCERT
- 1 July 2008
- Published since
- 1996
- ISBN
- 978-81-959241-0-3
“…certainly will help in making the basic concept of writing correct chemical formula and balanced equations clearer to students.”
“Activities given in the manual are thought provoking.”
Both are letters of appreciation for the method. Neither is accreditation, nor approval of the book as a prescribed text, nor current or ongoing. Both are reproduced in full, with how they came about, on the About page.
Request a sample copy.
One copy per school, no obligation. Tell us your intake and we will quote bulk pricing and confirm a delivery date before you raise a purchase order.
Against your syllabus
Every board asks for it before it teaches it.
The Playbook does not follow a board's chapter order, and it is not a substitute for the textbook. It teaches the notation each board assumes a student already has — which, as each board's own textbook shows, is assumed rather earlier than it is explained.
| Board | Chemistry starts | Formulas to write | Equations to write | When writing them is taught |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ICSE Indian Certificate of Secondary Education | Class 6 | Introduced from Class 8 | Word equations from Class 7 | Symbol, valency, formula of radicals and balancing — Class 9 |
| CBSE Central Board of Secondary Education | Class 7 | About 75 across Classes 7 to 10 | About 70 across Classes 7 to 10 | Writing a formula — Class 9. Writing and balancing an equation — Class 10. |
| SSLC Secondary School Leaving Certificate, Kerala | Class 8 | About 50 across Classes 8 to 10 | About 50 across Classes 8 to 10 | Writing a formula — Class 9. |
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ICSE — the gap
The Council’s own annual Pupils Performance Analysis identifies writing symbols, chemical formulas and balanced equations as a persistent difficulty.
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CBSE — the gap
Formulas appear from Class 7 and equations from Class 7, but writing a formula is not explained until Class 9 and balancing not until Class 10.
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SSLC — the gap
Balancing equations is explained in Class 8, Part I, Chapter IV, before a chemical formula or a chemical equation has been explained at all.
Questions
What a head of department needs to answer internally.
Can a school get a sample copy before ordering?
Yes. Playway Books sends one sample copy per school on request, with no obligation. Use the enquiry form on the For Schools page or ring the Ernakulam office on +91 484 2405580 — a school that would rather talk than fill in a form is not a lesser enquiry.
Does the Playbook map to our board’s syllabus?
The Playbook teaches chemical notation, which ICSE, CBSE and SSLC all assume rather than teach. The mapping table on the For Schools page sets the book’s topics against all three boards by class level, and it is written to print cleanly so a head of department can forward it internally.
What are the CISCE and NCERT letters?
They are letters of appreciation for the method — CISCE on 18 December 2002, and NCERT’s Department of Education in Science and Mathematics on 1 July 2008. They are not accreditation and not an approval of the book as a prescribed text, and Playway Books does not describe them as either. The book’s own back cover credits them to “the ICSE Board” and “the CBSE Board”, which is wrong on both counts and is due to be corrected in the next print run; the preface has it right. Both letters are reproduced in full on the About page.
Can a school photocopy the Playbook for a class?
No — and the first reason is practical rather than legal. The Playbook is consumable: two sheets of tokens are punched out of it and handled, nineteen exercises are written in and marked against the answers enclosed at the back, and the evaluation chart is filled in as a student goes. A photocopy carries none of that, so a class working from photocopied sheets is doing a worse exercise than the one the book sets. A school that cannot buy a copy per student should ring the Ernakulam office on +91 484 2405580 about bulk pricing rather than photocopy — that is a shorter conversation than it sounds. What may be used without asking, what needs permission, and the law it sits under are set out on the copyright and permissions page.
Can you deliver before the academic year starts?
Yes, when the order is placed with enough notice. Bulk orders are printed and dispatched from Ernakulam, so the constraint is the print run rather than a warehouse — tell us your intake date on the enquiry form and we will confirm a date before you raise a purchase order.
Every question, including what is in the box and what it costs