OPAL at SGFS

Opal Play at South Gosforth First School

Here at South Gosforth First School, we are proud to be a fully accredited ‘OPAL’ Platinum School.

OPAL stands for ‘Outdoor Play and Learning’ and it is centred around the premise that all children should be able to access high-quality, carefully planned and diverse play opportunities, which support them with their physical, emotional, social and intellectual development.

We believe that all of our children should feel fulfilled and enriched after they have accessed play provision at lunch times and that this will, in turn, enable them to better access their learning.

In order to do this, we provide a number of different ‘play zones’ or areas outside, which our children can access freely - These areas include:

Performance, costume and music

Sand pit and digging

Water Play

Art and Creativity Zone

Wheeled Play (bikes, scooters and mini rickshaws)

Small World Play

Den Building

Sports and Team Games (in our MUGA space)

Mud Kitchen and Role Play, as well as many other areas for our children to enjoy

OPAL requires a lot of resourcing and play equipment replenishment as the year goes on and we are so lucky to have such a supportive school community, who fully value the benefits of OPAL and who give many kind donations all throughout the academic year that our children can use outside, which really enhances their play provision.

We ask that all of our children from Reception to Year 4 bring wellies to school every day, as well as having a waterproof jacket, as we feel that it is important that we give our pupils the opportunity to play outside in all weathers, wherever possible.

Our families can find out more information about OPAL here on their website - https://outdoorplayandlearning.org.uk/ 

We thank everyone in our school family for their continued commitment to OPAL and the value that this holds for the development of our children.

You can see our OPAL Play Policy below, as well as another useful document which outlines the kinds of donations which we are always looking for from our families.