St Mary's C of E Primary School & Nursery

Outdoor Play and Learning (OPAL)

At St Mary’s we aim for all our children to experience happy playtimes where they are shining brightly and being safe, ready and respectful. We highly value playtimes and understand they are essential for children’s physical and mental wellbeing. We also recognise that it is a child’s basic human right to play and that this is set out in the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). 

In 2023 we joined the award-winning OPAL (Outdoor Play and Learning) programme to improve opportunities for physical activity, socialisation, cooperation, coordination, resilience, creativity, imagination and enjoyment through improved play.  We are really enjoying being part of this programme and seeing the impact of working together to make playtimes even better for our children. 

Whilst it may appear to some that OPAL is just be about giving things to children to play with, it is actually MUCH more than this. There are a team of people who run this initiative in the school and they work alongside the national team at the OPAL College, supporting us in the programme of training, risk-assessing, installation, maintenance and reviewing. The children are crucially involved in leading their own play and so regular assemblies and class discussions engage the children in negotiations and decisions over OPAL activities.  

At school we have regular OPAL assemblies with the children to celebrate play and look at ways we can make playtimes even better.  As we improve play opportunities for our children, you may find we are asking parents, carers and our local community for resources - so watch out for requests! 

Clothing for Outdoor Play and Learning (OPAL)

They say there is no such thing as bad weather – as long as you have the right clothes on!

St Mary's aim for every child to have high-quality outdoor time every day as part of our OPAL (Outdoor Play and Learning) experiences for our children. This means we play and learn outdoors in all weathers.

In order for the children to enjoy the outdoors all year round, please ensure that your child has a pair of named wellington boots in school plus waterproofs (in a plastic bag or similar).

Any waterproof clothing can be worn and there is no expectation to purchase a school set but they are available from our school uniform provider here: WATERPROOF JKT AND TRS SET - PMG Schoolwear.