Did you know that children participate in up to 600 playtimes a year. That accounts for approximately 20% of the school day or 1.4 years of their primary education!
We believe that children should access high quality play everyday. To do this, we made a commitment to improve the quality of children’s play experiences in our school. We began our journey in 2021 by signing up to the Opal programme (Outdoor Play and Learning). The Opal programme is founded on the principles and values of playwork, providing a wide variety of play opportunities from the sixteen types of play. Meaning children are still learning and having fun whilst outside. OPAL has a strong impact on children’s creativity, imagination, cooperation, resilience, stamina and overall confidence. We have spent the last few years embedding the playwork principles into our school and ensuring we provide opportunities for children to access the 16 types of play.
Making Opal Better Across Our School
There is always something new on our playground! To make sure we all know about it, we introduce new play equipment in whole school assemblies. Here we share ideas on how to use it, agree how to use it safely and think about where it will go in our yard.
Resourcing Opal equipment for over 100 children can be very difficult. As a school, we run Opal events throughout the year. On these days, children can come into school in non-uniform in exchange for Opal resources.
