OPAL

OPAL has won the best active schools’ programme in Europe award and been cited in two Parliamentary Reports as outstanding practice. OPAL is working closely with Sport England to promote more active childhoods.

OPAL is based on the idea that as well as learning through good teaching, your children also learn when they play, and as 20% of their time in school is playtime, we want to make sure that this amount of time (equivalent to 1.4 years of primary school) is as good as possible.

One reason the school is carrying out this programme is that childhood has changed, and many children no longer get their play needs met out of school.

Average screen time per day 5 hours

Average outdoor play time per week 5 hours

Percentage of UK children who only play outdoor with other children at school 56%

There are many proven benefits for schools which carry out the OPAL Programme. They
usually include: more enjoyment of school, less teaching time lost to disputes between
children, less accidents and greatly improved behaviour.

Play is not messing about. It is the process evolution has come up with to enable children to
learn all of the things that cannot be taught, while also feeling like it is fun. There are certain
things children should have in order to be able to play. These include:

• Having clothes that you can play in
• Having things to play with
• Having a certain amount of freedom

As we improve play opportunities for your children, you will find that they have more resources outside on the playground. We will be making changes to how the children use the school grounds. They may use more of the grounds, for more of the year. Your children may get a bit messier, be exposed to more challenges and have greater freedom to play where, with whom and how they like.

These experiences the school is creating are essential for children’s physical and mental well-being and health and in line with all current good practice advice on health safety, well-being and development.

To facilitate this project, we will need to buy some new resources, move some things around on the playground and we will also require some loose parts. Loose parts are any materials that can be easily moved, combined, and incorporated into children's free play.

Some ideas of what we are accepting can be found below. Please make contact with the office if you have anything that you are willing to donate.

We would like all children to have a pair of welly boots in school and to bring a coat to school every day, so that we can go out in weathers. If you have any spare welly boots, we would be grateful for any donations.

Thank you for your ongoing support.