OPAL - Outdoor Play And Learning

OPAL - Outdoor Play And Learning

We are proud to say that we are an OPAL school and this forms part of our School Development Plan in 2025-2026. The OPAL vision is that every child in every school has an amazing hour of high-quality play every day – with no exceptions.

Outdoor Play and Learning (OPAL) CIC is the UK’s leading, award-winning organisation providing school improvement through play.

OPAL has helped thousands of schools improve play for millions of children in schools in the UK, France, Spain, Italy, Czech Rep, Slovak Rep, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and Malaysia.

Each of the 2,000 schools OPAL have helped has taught them something new. The OPAL Primary Programme is action-research led, meaning OPAL are always always improving their programme and our supporting their schools.

Considerable proven benefits have been gained from participating in the OPAL Primary Programme. These include:

• Successfully transforming attitudes and culture across the whole school community, especially in relation to the value of play and attitudes to risk and dirt.
• Getting schools to dramatically improve access to their grounds and the quality of the play offer available to children through low-cost high impact changes.
• Changing children's patterns of behaviours away from problematic and disruptive and towards creative, imaginative, collaborative and resilient.
• All OPAL schools report significant increases in children's joy and happiness in school. This is reported by the children themselves and the adults who care for them.
• All OPAL schools report a transformation in the equality and equity of children's playtime experiences. Girls, children with additional needs, those on free school meals and non-sporty children consistently have better, more active and more enjoyable playtimes.