OPAL Team
- Opal Supervisor: H Ede
- Curriculum Lead for Play: S Jordan
- Play Coordinator: S George
- Play coordinator: R Arnott
- Parent Play Champion: S Peart
- Play Team: Lunchtime supervisors, all teachers and teaching assistants
- Opal Site Supervisor: N Tullock
- OPAL Play champion Governor: E Kemp
At Lakes Primary School we believe outdoor exercise and exploration are fundamental to a child’s health, development and wellbeing. This led us to reflect on how our outdoor provision could be improved for lunch and break times. We found OPAL’s research was in line with our school’s beliefs and values. Our OPAL journey started in 2023, here are some examples of our progress so far…
We are very fortunate to have such a large outdoor space and now all children use the full site for their play. The school has two large yards, a willow zone, a wooden amphitheatre, trees, embedded tyres, a fitness trail, huge sandpit, plenty of seating for socialising and now additional storage and resources. We have welly storage throughout school for each year group or key stage, which allows us to use the field regardless of the weather.
Go-Karts, balance bikes, scooter boards and steppers
We are nature explorers!
We have a range of creative opportunities, some of which are shown below.
We have two reading huts which are always very popular with grab and go reading and drawing caddies.
We have several games and activities that promote communication skills, problem-solving and resilience.
All staff in school can complete a welly nomination for a child which demonstrates the OPAL values. Every Friday, we choose a name at random and they win the ‘Golden Welly,’ this also means your class get an extra OPAL session within the following week. We introduced a peer nomination, where children can speak to the play team to nominate another child linked to our OPAL and School values.
Although this is only a snapshot of our OPAL play, we hope this has given you an insight into how we enjoy our lunch and playtime. We have had parent stay and play sessions, as well as running a very popular OPAL after-school club, led by our play team. We will continually embed the OPAL approach and continue to improve our play provision.