OPAL Team
Curricular Lead for Play (Mr Vickers)
Play Coordinator (Ollie Shaw)
Play Leads (Miss Burniston and Miss Burniston)
Assistant Play Leaders (LSA’s – Lunchtime Supervisors, all Teaching staff and all Teaching Assistants)
Caretaker (Dave Murgatroyd)
OPAL Champion Governor (Claire Tennyson)
OUTDOOR PLAY AND LEARNING (OPAL)
Because play matters. Every child. Every day.
🌿 Play is at the heart of our school
At our school, we believe that play is an essential part of childhood. It is how children explore the world, develop friendships, discover new interests, challenge themselves and learn about one another. We recognise that some of the most valuable learning takes place beyond the classroom, and we are passionate about ensuring that every child has the opportunity to enjoy a rich, exciting and memorable play experience.
Through our Outdoor Play and Learning (OPAL) programme, we have transformed our lunchtime provision into an exciting outdoor environment where children are encouraged to explore, imagine, create, collaborate and challenge themselves.
☀️ Our Golden Hour – Time to Play
We believe that children deserve time to play, and we protect this through our dedicated Golden Hour at lunchtime.
This ensures that children have the time and freedom to immerse themselves in their play, follow their interests and develop their own ideas without feeling rushed. Rather than seeing lunchtime as simply a break between lessons, we recognise it as a valuable and important part of the school day.
Our Golden Hour gives children the opportunity to make choices, build friendships, develop independence and experience the many physical, social and emotional benefits that meaningful play brings.
🌳 A World of Possibilities
Our outdoor environment offers an incredible variety of opportunities, ensuring there is something for everyone. Children are encouraged to choose how they spend their time, whether that involves being active, getting creative, exploring nature or enjoying imaginative play with friends.
🏃 Adventure, Movement and Physical Challenge
For children who love to be active, there are plenty of opportunities to develop their coordination, balance, strength and confidence. Our provision includes:
- Swings, monkey bars and tree climbing.
- Bikes of all shapes and sizes.
- Obstacle courses and a slackline.
- Football, basketball, hockey and dodgeball.
- Boxing activities and tug of war.
🎨 Imagination, Creativity and Construction
We provide a wealth of resources that encourage children to use their imagination, develop ideas and bring their creations to life. Children can enjoy:
- Den building and podley construction.
- Sandpits and digging areas.
- A caravan dedicated to arts and crafts.
- A wide range of small world play resources.
- Our dolls house cabin.
- Stages for dancing, performing and expressing themselves.
🌱 Nature, Exploration and Growing
We believe in the importance of connecting children with the natural environment and giving them opportunities to explore the outdoors. Our grounds include:
- Allotments where children can explore growing and gardening.
- Fruit trees and opportunities to connect with nature.
- Digging and exploring natural materials.
- Opportunities to climb, investigate and discover the world around them.
These experiences encourage curiosity, creativity, problem-solving and an appreciation of the natural world.
💚 The Power of Play
Our approach is built around the belief that play should be freely chosen, personally directed and intrinsically motivated. Children are given the freedom to follow their own interests, make decisions and develop their play in their own way.
We recognise that play supports so much more than physical development. Through their experiences, children develop:
Social skills – building friendships, communicating, negotiating and learning to cooperate.
Resilience – overcoming challenges, trying new things and learning from experiences.
Independence – making choices, taking responsibility and developing confidence.
Creativity and imagination – exploring possibilities, inventing games and bringing ideas to life.
Physical development – improving coordination, balance, strength and overall fitness.
Emotional wellbeing – enjoying themselves, developing a sense of belonging and building positive relationships.
We also believe in the importance of allowing children to experience appropriate challenge and managed risk. Through supportive supervision, children learn to assess situations, make decisions and understand their own capabilities. Our role is to provide a safe, stimulating environment where they can explore, take responsibility and grow in confidence.
Above all, we want every child to feel included, valued and excited about coming outside to play.
🏆 Recognised for Excellence – Double Platinum!
We are incredibly proud that our OPAL provision has been recognised with two consecutive Platinum Awards – the highest level of recognition within the OPAL programme.
Achieving Platinum for a second time is a particularly significant accomplishment and reflects the outstanding quality of our play provision, the commitment of our staff and the enthusiasm of our children.
This achievement is not simply about the equipment and resources we provide. It recognises the culture we have created, where play is valued, children are given opportunities to flourish and every lunchtime is an opportunity for adventure, discovery and enjoyment.
Our achievements have also attracted attention beyond our school community, with our OPAL journey and Platinum recognition featured in both The Northern Echo and Teesside Gazette.
We are immensely proud of our children, staff, families and wider community who have helped make our OPAL provision what it is today.
📰 Our OPAL Success in the News
Our commitment to outdoor play has received recognition beyond our school community. You can read more about our achievements in the following newspaper articles:
- The Northern Echo: Grangetown school named among the best in England for outdoor play
- Teesside Gazette: Grangetown Primary celebrates OPAL Platinum recognition
🌈 A Lunchtime to Remember
We want our children to look forward to lunchtimes, to make memories, discover new passions, build lasting friendships and enjoy being children.
Our OPAL provision reflects our belief that childhood should be filled with opportunities to explore, create, imagine and play. We will continue to develop our outdoor environment and provide experiences that make every lunchtime special.
Because play matters. Every child. Every day.
