In what ways, if any, do you think you benefited from playtime? Thinking about your own childhood, what did you like playing at school or at home? Children today don’t have the same freedoms we once did, so we want to give children back time to really enjoy and learn from play. After all, it’s a child’s basic human right.

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. In 2019, OPAL was awarded a quarter of a million pounds by Sport England to bring the programme to many more schools.

OPAL is based on the idea that, as well as learning through good teaching, your children also learn when they play. 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. 

We are proud of the developments we have made to playtimes through the Outdoor Play and Learning (OPAL) project. We aim to continue to make play times and lunchtimes as enjoyable as possible and through the project, our goal is that children are able to lead their own play by working together, use their imagination and creativity; the adult's role is to facilitate this play. We also see the purpose of playtimes and lunchtimes as an opportunity for the children to learn how to socialise appropriately and make friends. The children have access to a wide range of activities; we are lucky to have trim trail and mud kitchen on our field area. It also has a digging area as well as a quiet sheltered space where children can read books with their friends or sit quietly. On the playground we have a sheltered area which is used for quiet activities such as reading and colouring.  We also have play activities set up such as small world play, a staged area, as well as sporting activities. There are also dedicated spaces where children can use bikes and scooters, or practice their football skills.