Outside Play and Learning (OPAL)

OPAL

Outdoor Play and Learning

At Buildwas Academy we aspire to engage children during every element of their education. We appreciate the importance of play to children’s happiness and the crucial part it plays in providing ambitious and creative opportunities that support a child’s development. Thus, building resilience and nurturing our children to evolve into the best versions of themselves.

Play is serious business and every child has a right to play. 

What is play?

Play is defined as any freely chosen activity that a child finds satisfying and creative. It may or may not involve equipment or other people.

Children spend 20% of their time in school playing.

The benefits of play include:

  • Supporting health and wellbeing
  • Promoting cognitive development
  • Developing physical activity and literacy
  • Assisting mental health and emotional wellbeing
  • Nurturing social development
  • Growing understanding of risk and challenge
  • Building resilience and character

OPAL (Outdoor Play and Learning) is all about using naturally and man made resources to allow children to be inspired and creative at playtime.

We had our first OPAL lunchtime in Autumn 2022 and are excited to grow and develop our OPAL offer over the next 18 months.

Play Assemblies

At least every two weeks we have a play assembly where we gather the children together to ensure that there is communication between adults and children about play. This forms a crucial part of the OPAL process it allows us to celebrate play, gain the children’s ideas about play development, discuss safety and risk management and then continue to innovate our playtimes.

Please find our Play Policy below

Outdoor Play And Learning OPAL Policy 2022