What is OPAL?

OPAL stands for ‘Outdoor play and learning’ and is a programme which helps schools plan for and invest in play the same way we would for other subjects and areas such as English, maths or safeguarding. It is an award-winning programme which helps improve children’s play experiences in many different ways.

The OPAL ethos is that playtimes should be active, creative and involve activities that are freely chosen and directed by the children. It encourages the use of ‘loose parts’ in playtimes: open-ended materials that children can move and use in different ways, such as boxes, crates, sheets, pipes, log rounds, buckets, and blocks. Not only this, but children will also have access to role play, chalks, small world toys, mud kitchens and much more to spark some creativity and fun during their playtimes.

The OPAL Programme rationale is that: “More active and creative playtimes can mean happier and healthier children, and having happier, healthier, more active children usually results in a more positive attitude to learning in school, with more effective classroom lessons, less staff time spent resolving unnecessary behavioural problems, fewer playtime accidents, happier staff and a healthier attitude to life”.

OPAL YouTube page link

Our journey

At Tanworth, we have been thinking about how we could improve our playtimes for the children. In October 2024, we started to work with OPAL in the hopes of improving playtimes by looking at play with a greater importance schoolwide.

In November, we had our first ‘Together Tuesday’ play session where the children were able to join up across the year groups on the same field and play together. We will have a few more of these days to help practise our new OPAL routines.

Over the next few months, we hope to…

• Ensure we are using as much of the school grounds as possible
• Add music to our playtimes
• Add lots of OPAL play equipment to the school grounds e.g. tyres, crates, small world toys
• Get the loose parts shed up and running for storage
• Start an OPAL play committee of children
• Continue to gather loose parts, old toys, play equipment, role play items, buckets, planks etc.

Please see below for lots of pictures of what we get up to in our OPAL sessions!