OPAL Play Gold Award Winners
We are delighted to say we are an OPAL Play Gold Award School!
Over the last 18 months, our school has undertaken an OPAL Play project to improve the lunchtime play provision we provide. We’ve worked hard to promote more physical activity and movement, while also enhancing opportunities for socialisation, cooperation, coordination, resilience, creativity, imagination, and enjoyment for your child.
In addition to investing in larger structures such as the sandpit and climbing frames now found around the grounds, your kind donations have enabled us to introduce many more play opportunities - including movement, crafting, small world play, dressing up, scooting, and lots of other fun activities.
Last week, the school underwent an accreditation assessment and received the OPAL Gold Award! This fantastic achievement places our school in the top 5% of primary schools in the country for the quality of outdoor play we provide.
The OPAL Gold award is a testament our dedication to create a rich, inclusive, and imaginative play environment and we thank all the staff for their hard work over the last 18 months. We look forward to continuing to develop our playtimes. Watch this space!
What's OPAL? Why OPAL?
The Outdoor Play and Learning (OPAL) Primary Programme is the result of over 20 years of testing and development in over 800 schools and has been used 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 playwork awards.
OPAL is based on the idea that, as well as learning through good teaching, we can also learn when we play. As 20% of our school day 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 our school is carrying out this programme is that our childhood has changed, and many of us no longer get our play needs met out of school.
- Our average screen time per day is six hours.
- Our average outdoor play time per week is just five hours.
- The percentage of us who only play outdoors with other children at school is 56%.
There are many proven benefits for schools that carry out the OPAL Primary Programme. They usually include: chidren enjoying school more, teachers spending less time sorting disputes, fewer bumps and accidents and improved behaviour.
Play isn’t just messing about! It is the process evolution has come up with for us to learn all of the things that cannot be taught, while also having so much fun.
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Shurdington Play Policy | [docx 62KB] |
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