OPAL - Outdoor Play and Learning

What does it mean to be an OPAL school?

Here at St John Fisher, 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!

As schools, we recognise play as a way all children encounter, explore and make sense of the world and their place within it. 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.

The OPAL Primary Programme

The OPAL Primary Programme‘s aim is to:

improve behaviour
improve well-being
develop skills
save time and money

It is an award-winning, evidence-based, strategic approach to improving the forgotten 20% of the school day. Did you know that play makes up 20% of school life? It is a strategic school improvement programme, building on expertise in:

teaching and learning
schools grounds
risk management
play work

The benefits of OPAL to Schools and Adults

10 minutes per day extra learning time
Less time spent on lunch time ‘incidents’
Less staff needed to directly supervise playtime
Less ‘wet play’
Less recorded sickness and absences in both children and staff
Cost saving – SLT and Teachers time
Grounds developed for play are also suitable for outdoor learning, forest school and use by the community
Improved connections with parents and community
Maximising the use of the whole school site and nearby areas for the benefit of children
Staff and children are happier!

The benefits of OPAL to children

Increased physical activity
Grit and resilience, perseverance, decision-making and determination
Creativity, language skills and story-telling
Increased opportunities for use of mathematical language, engineering and physics
Development of social and emotional skills
increased environmental awareness
Improved positive behaviour
Less accidents, incidents and whining – addressing cotton wool culture
More on task on return to class