OPAL – Outdoor Play and Learning
We are so excited to be implementing OPAL in our school this year. If you would like to learn more about the OPAL Primary Programme (Outdoor Play and Learning Primary Programme), please have a look at the OPAL website - www.outdoorplayandlearning.org.uk, where you will find lots of useful information and several videos about the programme.

A key school improvement priority, OPAL is based on the idea that as well as learning through excellent teaching, children also learn when they experience high quality play.  

Did you know that 20% of children's time is spent outside at playtime?  

We therefore want to make sure that this amount of time (equivalent to 1.4 years of primary school) is the best it possibly can be.

OPAL has been running for over 20 years and as a result of extensive testing and development, it has been used in over 800 schools, in Spain, Canada, France and New Zealand. The programme has also been adapted and used in schools in Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Austria under the Play Friendly Schools project. In 2018, OPAL won first prize in an EU-funded award for the best active school’s programme in Europe and two UK national play work awards. In 2019, OPAL was awarded a quarter of a million pounds by Sport England to bring the programme to many more schools.

We also know that childhood has changed, screen time has increased significantly and many children no longer get their play needs met out of school.

Did you know that in the UK

• Average outdoor play time per week is five hours

• The percentage of UK children who only play outdoors with other children at school is 56% 

At St Luke’s, by implementing the OPAL programme, we want to provide lots of opportunities for play. We specifically want to 

• Improve the quality of playtimes by offering a wider range of exciting play opportunities.

• Support children’s well-being, independence and resilience.

• Encourage teamwork, communication and creativity through open-ended play.

• Make playtimes happier, calmer and more inclusive for all pupils.

• Strengthen our school community, giving children more chances to cooperate, share and build friendships.

Our OPAL Working Party

Our OPAL working party is made up of staff who are passionate about high-quality play and who help drive the project forward across the school. They work closely with children, teachers, families and OPAL mentors to develop our long-term play vision.

• Headteacher: Mrs Goplen - Leads on Strategy - Policy

• Curricular Lead: Mrs Brown - Leads on Strategy

• Play Coordinator: Mrs Racher and Mr Sells - Lead on operational delivery of play

• Play Governor: Mrs Vincent

• Parent Champion: Katie Hudson

• OPAL Mentor: Helen Easton

Our Working Party is working to ensure that playtimes continuously improve so that all children benefit from high quality play experienced.

Meet our OPAL Play Team 

Mr Ellis, Mrs Smith, Mrs Ellis, Mrs McIntosh, Mrs Cox, Mrs Atkinson, Mrs Racher and Mrs Bardwell. 

Meet our wonderful Play Team! As we begin our OPAL journey, these staff members are outside every day to facilitate and support our new ways of playing. Their role is to encourage child-led adventure and ensure every student has a fun, creative, and active break. They are there to empower the children to explore, build, and play their way!

Our OPAL Journey - where are we so far? 

At the start of our OPAL journey, there has been a lot going on behind the scenes. This term the focus is all about COLLECTING. 
 

• We've signed up to the programme - HUGE thanks to FOSLSS who have kindly donated £6000 towards the cost of this amazing project. All schools who sign up to OPAL are supported by OPAL for 18 months.

• Our Governing Body has allocated and additional £10,000 towards OPAL.

• All staff have completed OPAL training.  On one of our recent INSET days, Helen Easton, our OPAL mentor provided OPAL training to all staff.

• All staff are now members of OPAL College, which provides ongoing training in relation to OPAL.

• We have cleared the area between the car park and the woodland area so that we will have space to store any resources we collect – e.g pallets and tyres, that we will be collecting for OPAL, later this term.

• We have cleared an area in the school to allow for storage inside.

• We have started to collect some large parts for future playtimes.

• We have sent out our first letter to parents to launch OPAL.

Do check this page as the year progresses to find out how we are continuing to make progress on our OPAL journey.