OPAL

Here at Maryport Church of England Primary School we are committed to ensuring quality play opportunities are available to all our children. Play is an integral part of the school day and, on average, takes up 20% of a child’s time in school: around 1.4 years of their primary school life!

We are working with OPAL to provide amazing opportunities for play for all of our children.

We recognise play as a way for children to explore and connect with the world around them. Therefore, it is our duty to ensure our site, staff and skills optimise the most fulfilling and rich play opportunities possible during breaktimes and lunchtimes. In doing so, we aim to highlight the interconnection between play, learning, development, health and happiness.

Many of our best childhood memories are from playing outdoors, climbing trees and exploring the wide world around us. OPAL creates the opportunity for our children to develop those memories too. OPAL is all about using natural and man made resources to allow children to become inspired and creative at playtime.

There are many proven benefits for schools which carry out the OPAL Programme. These include: greater enjoyment of school, less teaching time lost to disputes between children, fewer accidents and greatly improved behaviour. Not only this, but research tells us that children who play outdoors move more, sleep more, eat better, are happier and even care about the planet more.

To find out more about OPAL click here: OPAL Outdoor Play and Learning

To find out more about a child's right to play, click here.

What does this mean for us?

• • Happier children
  • Children coming into class ready to learn
  • A fully inclusive playtime offer
  • It allows children an opportunity to be creative and make decisions
  • Children develop independence and resilience skills
  • Increased social skills
  • …. and most importantly fun!

OFSTED – March 2023

Pupils appreciate the steps that leaders have taken to make their lunchtimes fun, creative and imaginative. Some pupils are play leaders and have worked with staff to design a variety of activities for pupils to take part in at lunchtime. These activities have been created to meet a wide range of pupils’ interests. For example, pupils enjoy building dens, dancing and construction. This deliberately planned play helps pupils to develop skills such as teamwork, collaboration, resilience and perseverance.

SIAMS – December 2022

The Christian vision inspires pupils to live and learn well together. They describe how the language of the vision encourages them to choose the right path at playtimes. Where pupils fall out, the school’s value of forgiveness supports reconciliation within relationships. Leaders’ and governors’ bold decision to enhance outdoor play with the Opal play initiative creates joyful moments of creative play. The positive impact on pupil behaviour is evident as pupils live out their values of collaboration, respect and friendship.

Play Policy

OPAL Play Leadership Team

Miss Pape

Curricular Lead for Play

In her role as Curricular LEad for Play, Miss Pape will support and facilitate meaningful and productive child-initiated play during the school day in accordance with the Play Policy.

Mrs Bell

Play Coordinator

The Play Coordinator will support and facilitate meaningful and productive child-initiated play during the school day in accordance with the play policy.

Miss Wood

Play Coordinator

The Play Coordinator will support and facilitate meaningful and productive child-initiated play during the school day in accordance with the play policy.

Steve Newton-Lister

Governor Play Champion

Alyx Murdock

Parent Play Champion

Meet the rest of the Play Team

OPAL Play Team

How can families and the wider community help?

Play is not simply messing about but is the process that enables children to learn about themselves and others. There are certain things children must have in order to be able to play. These include:

• Having clothes they can play in
• Having things to play with
• Having a certain amount of freedom

We welcome the commitment from all of our parents to the essentials outlined above.

Part of adventurous OPAL play is that children will be able to enjoy the freedom of choosing how they play and managing the challenges they meet along the way… even when it means they get a littler messier! We feel the experiences fostered through OPAL are essential to every child’s physical, mental, social and adventurous well-being.

Loose Parts

To kick-start OPAL we collected a huge variety of loose parts. Loose parts are any materials that can be easily moved, combined, and incorporated into children’s free play. We continue to reach out to our wider school community to donate loose parts to add more variety to what we can offer our children and to continually replace broken items.

If you have anything you think we may like, big or small, please let a member of the Play Team know or just bring them into school. Your rubbish is our treasure!

Types of Play