Amazing playtimes, every day!

We are excited to be embarking on our OPAL journey!

At Emscote Infant School, we believe that play is an essential part of every child's childhood. It is how children explore the world around them, develop friendships, build confidence and learn important life skills.

We are beginning our journey with OPAL (Outdoor Play and Learning), a programme designed to help schools create exciting, inclusive and stimulating play opportunities for every child.

Our vision is simple: to make every playtime a happy, active, creative and memorable experience for all our children.

What is OPAL?

OPAL stands for Outdoor Play and Learning. It is a programme that supports schools to improve the quality of playtimes by making better use of outdoor spaces, introducing a wider range of play opportunities and encouraging children to use their imagination.

Rather than seeing playtime as simply a break between lessons, we recognise it as a valuable part of school life where children learn through exploration, creativity, movement and interaction with others.

Through OPAL, we hope to create an outdoor environment where children can choose how they play, follow their interests and discover new possibilities every day.

Why are we introducing OPAL?

As an infant school, we know how important these early years are in shaping children's confidence, independence and love of learning.

We want our children to have the freedom and opportunities to enjoy rich play experiences, develop friendships and make wonderful memories of their time at school.

OPAL will help us to develop play opportunities that support children to:

• Develop friendships – learning to share, cooperate, negotiate and solve problems together.
• Build confidence and independence – making choices, trying new things and developing resilience.
• Explore their creativity – using their imagination to invent games, create dens and turn everyday objects into something extraordinary.
• Stay active and healthy – enjoying opportunities to move, balance, climb and explore.
• Develop communication skills – talking, listening, sharing ideas and working together.
• Enjoy their childhood – experiencing the joy, excitement and freedom of meaningful play.

Most importantly, we want every child to feel included, valued and able to enjoy their playtime in their own way.

What might OPAL play look like?

Imagine an outdoor space full of possibilities!

Children might be building dens, creating imaginary worlds, balancing, digging, exploring nature, transporting objects, making up games or working together to solve a problem.

With a variety of resources and opportunities, children can lead their own play, follow their curiosity and discover that there are many different ways to have fun.

As our OPAL journey develops, we will gradually introduce new ideas, resources and opportunities to enrich our outdoor provision.

Our OPAL journey

Embarking on OPAL is an exciting journey for our whole school community. We will be reflecting on how our children currently play, identifying opportunities to improve our outdoor spaces and working together to make playtimes even better.

This will be a gradual process, with changes introduced as we develop our provision and learn what works best for our children.

We look forward to seeing our playgrounds become places of imagination, discovery, friendship and adventure.

How can parents and carers help?

Our families will play an important part in making OPAL a success. We would love our school community to join us on this journey.

As our play provision develops, we may ask for donations of suitable, clean and safe loose parts and everyday resources that children can use creatively in their play. Any requests will be shared by the school, together with guidance about suitable items.

We also encourage families to help children come to school prepared for outdoor play in different weather conditions.

Please provide, where possible:

• A waterproof coat.
• Wellies or suitable outdoor footwear.
• Spare clothes when requested.

We know that outdoor play can sometimes mean muddy knees, wet sleeves and wonderfully messy adventures! We ask for your support in embracing the learning and enjoyment that come with these experiences.

Safe, inclusive and enjoyable play

Children need opportunities to explore, make decisions and experience appropriate challenges as they grow. Our aim is to provide stimulating play opportunities within an environment that is carefully planned, appropriately supervised and managed with children's safety and wellbeing in mind.

We want every child to feel that they can participate, explore their interests and enjoy play in a way that suits their individual needs.

Follow our OPAL journey!

We are excited to see where our OPAL journey takes us and look forward to sharing our progress with you.

As new resources arrive, outdoor spaces develop and the children discover exciting ways to play, we will share updates, photographs and opportunities for families to get involved.

Thank you for supporting us as we work towards creating happier, more active and more adventurous playtimes for every child.

At Emscote Infant School we believe that play matters. Let's make every playtime count!

 

For further information, please see below.

https://outdoorplayandlearning.org.uk/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

https://outdoorplayandlearning.org.uk/opal-programme/faq-for-parents/?utm_source=chatgpt.com