OPAL (Outdoor Play and Learning)
Children spend 20% of their time at school playing. With this in mind we have engaged with the OPAL Primary Programme (Outside Play and Learning) to support us in promoting freedom for children to explore play in their own imaginative ways, using found and gathered resources in the natural outdoor environment.
Following a term of planning, we began to introduce OPAL to our children in September 2018.
We have now completed two terms of OPAL play and it has been a great success – more children are loving being outside as there is now so much more to do.
Whether it is playing with tyres and planks, making dens, enjoying imaginative play in the small world area or playing on the scooters or with the wheeled toys, OPAL is offering a creative and exciting alternative to the regular activities on the yard.
In addition to the areas already being used, we have plans to extend our play offer over the next half term. We hope to add mud kitchens in both yards and to extend the provision for den making.
Through this kind of play, not only are children more active at lunchtime, they are also having the opportunity to further develop life skills such as cooperation, team work and problem solving.
Thank you for your support so far. You can still help us more by donating any unwanted materials you have at home such as:
- Plastic or metal buckets
- Kitchen utensils, pots, pans, baking trays, sieves, colanders etc for the mud kitchen
- Watering cans, wheel barrows, guttering
- Large pieces of fabric / tarpaulins
- Toy trucks, diggers, cars
- Small world creatures e.g. dinosaurs, farm animals etc.
- Old suitcases and wheeled toys.
- Ropes
Thank you for your continued support. Take a look at these photos to get an idea as to just how much fun your children are having.
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