OPAL

As a rights respecting school, we believe that every child has the right to a fun, safe and fulfilling playtime, with a range of different opportunities provided for them to express themselves and learn about their environment. In order to fulfil this, we have been following the Outdoor Play and Learning (OPAL) program since April 2023.

During this time, our playtimes have seen many positive changes:

Removing the separation of year groups at break and lunchtime.
Increasing outdoor play time from 30 to 45 minutes.
Providing music at lunchtimes.
Making fancy dress and a range of donated toys available.
Providing ball game zones.
Providing a craft area for both independent and staff designed activities.
Opening multiple new outdoor areas.
Introducing a messy kitchen, and providing mud, sand and water play.
Introducing loose parts e.g. pallets, tires and wire reels.
Providing quieter areas through the canopy, den area and sensory walkway.

This academic year has seen a plethora of significant changes aimed at enhancing playtimes for our learners. We began by introducing large loose parts, such as pallets, tyres and wire reels, onto the playground. To ensure the safe utilisation of these objects, we conducted whole-school assemblies and regular follow-up checks to educate students about potential risks and safety measures, as well as training our staff members on risk. We’ve been thoroughly impressed by our students’ responsible attitudes, as they’ve worked collaboratively and creatively to construct impressive structures, demonstrating teamwork and out-of-the-box thinking.

One notable addition is an area along the side of our school, made possible with the help of parents, which offers diverse play opportunities including mud, sand, and water play. This area houses our messy kitchen, constructed by one of our parents. Here, children have showcased remarkable creativity, imagination, teamwork, and problem-solving skills. Additionally, we received a rowing boat donation from our OPAL Governor, providing another avenue for imaginative play.

We’ve also established quieter spaces for students, including the canopy, den area and a sensory walkway. The canopy features a craft area, large board games, Lego, soft toys, reading circles and our hobbit hole. The den area comprises a tent, string, tarpaulins, and sticks, allowing children to unleash their imagination.

Next, we are working towards a role play area.

Types of Play:

The OPAL initiative, set up by Michael Fowler, recognizes 12 types of play that are all important for a child’s learning and development. We have been working on facilitating and encouraging all types of play at our school including during the school day and at lunchtime.

These are the 12 types:

Here is some more information about each type of play and how we have been providing opportunities related to each type for our students.

Type	What it is	How we provide
Creative play	Using materials to express imagination, emotions and explore understanding.	Craft area, sand and mud areas, art, choosing time at school.
Exploratory play	Exploring environments, assessing risks, pushing own boundaries and testing their own limits.	Loose parts, sand and mud area, PE, science and ICT.
Mastery play	Learning about nature and testing the world around them.	Digging in the mud area, exploring water play, creating buildings in the sandpit, creating puddles and moats, building blocks into towers and demolishing them, growing sunflowers.
Object play	Testing different objects to understand them better and discover their unconventional uses as well as their conventional ones.	Wide range of objects provided on the playground, both conventional for playing e.g. dolls and balls, and unconventional for playing e.g. large loose parts and a range of kitchen items.
Communication play	Singing, understanding double meanings of words, using and creating fun language to communicate and play, using body language to communicate and play.	Music box provided for singing, group seating and areas provided for communication, performing arts lessons, literacy lessons.
Dramatic play	Creating plays, songs and dance routines. Creating dramatic plays out of everyday situations.	Music box available for creation, fancy dress available to enact situations, objects e.g. child buggies, school equipment and shop equipment provided for social situations.
Role play	Playing games as an imaginary or real character both human and not.	Fancy dress provided with a range of different types of costumes, den equipment provided to create different stages, messy kitchen provided to act out cooking, performing arts lessons.
Social play	Any social or interactive experience.	Mixing of all year groups and extended lunchtimes in order to facilitate teamwork with a range of different students, water play encourages students to work together to create effective designs, collaborative work in lessons.
Rough and tumble play	Close encounters, physical bonding/activity and testing strength. Making playful contact to learn about yourself in relation to others, learning empathy and self-control during play.	Supervised team ball games on the playground, loose parts and gym matts used for strength tests, encouraging children to respect others’ boundaries and use their choice whether to participate in playtime activities or not, PE.
Locomotor play	Chasing, hiding, throwing, jumping, swinging, activities.	Skipping ropes, hula hoops, ball games, loose parts for climbing and jumping, areas of the playground freed up for opportunities for chasing.
Deep play	Encountering the concept of exhilaration and risk and assessing situations. Learning to be safe whilst pushing boundaries.	Loose parts provided to assess risk, scooters provided for fast movement, PE.
Fantasy/imaginative play	Accessing other realities using props unconventionally and using their imagination to act out fantasies.	Wide range of objects provided for the children and imagination observed, e.g. wire reels being wheelchairs, pool noodles as swords, trays as cars etc, Performing arts.
Recapulative play	Reverting to behaviours of early humans e.g. making dens and camps, growing/cooking own food, playing war games.	Providing range of environments e.g. sand, mud and water, providing areas to create dens.
Symbolic play	Using words, gestures or images to represent objects, events or actions.	Wide range of equipment provided and children encouraged to use in any way they like.

Springfield Juniors OPAL play policy