Amazing play, everyday, for every child

St Mary's Catholic Primary School are proud to be an OPAL school. OPAL is an award-winning, mentor supported school improvement programme that addresses all the areas that schools must plan for if they want to strategically and sustainably improve the quality of their play opportunities. OPAL is the only programme of its kind that has been independently proven to sustainably improve the quality of play in British primary schools. St Mary's began their journey with OPAL in September 2024 and we are working to achieve our OPAL award over the next 2 years.

OPAL is based on the idea that, as well as learning through good teaching, your children also learn when they play. As 20% of their time in school is playtime, we want to make sure that this amount of time (equivalent to 1.4 years of primary school) is as good as possible.

There are many proven benefits for schools that carry out the OPAL Primary Programme. They usually include: more enjoyment of school, less teaching time lost to disputes between children, fewer accidents and greatly improved behaviour.

OPAL News

Our OPAL Team!

Mrs Thorogood - Curricular Lead for Play

 Play Team:

Mrs Skinner Coombs

Mrs Harnett

Mrs Acteson

Mrs KcKenna

Mrs Avery

Mrs Wood

Mrs Martin

Miss Simpson

Mrs Waller

Mr Whorlow

Mrs Nash

Miss Laming

Mrs Simpson

What makes good play?

Play is not messing about. It is the process evolution has come up with to enable children to learn all of the things that cannot be taught, while also having so much fun. There are certain things children must have in order to be able to play. These include:

 Having clothes that they can play in.

Having things to play with - including loose parts.

Having a certain amount of freedom.

 As the school improves play opportunities for children, you may find we ask you for resources and make changes about how the children use the school grounds. They may use more of the grounds, for more of the year. Your children may get a bit messier, be exposed to more challenges and have greater freedoms to play where, with whom and how they like. The experiences the school are fostering are essential for children’s physical and mental wellbeing and are in line with all current good practice advice on health and safety, wellbeing and development.

We will need regular donations to keep adding to the play opportunities for our children. As we start out, we are asking for specific items each week (watch out for posters around school and Dojo announcements). However there are regular items which we will always gratefully receive, for example:

- cuddly toys

- small world items (figurines, dinosaurs or animals, cars and planes etc.)

- suitcases

- mud kitchen resources: old pans, colanders etc.

- fabrics and tarps

- dressing up clothes (especially wigs)

- chalk

- wellies and water proofs

- cardboard boxes

- loose parts (see below)

Play Policy