Outdoor Play And Learning (OPAL Play)
Butler's Hill Infant & Nursery School is proud to be joining the OPAL community this September (2025) to become an OPAL school.
Children spend 3 years at our school, 0.6 of those years is at playtime! Being an OPAL school will allow us to strategically and sustainably improve the quality of our play offer. It will embed play into our school policies and practices and establish clear, guiding principles for initiating lasting changes at playtime. Ultimately, our children will increase their play literacy, resilience and collaboration.
The benefits of OPAL to children
•Physical activity: up to 100% of girls and SEN more active
•Resilience, perseverance, decision-making and determination
•Creativity, language skills and storytelling
•Mathematical language, engineering and science
•Social and emotional skills
•Environmental awareness
•Improved positive behaviour
•Less accidents and incidents
•More on task on return to class
The benefits to schools and adults
- Ten minutes extra learning time per day
- Less time spent on lunch time ‘incidents’
- Less indoor ‘wet play’
- Less recorded sickness and absences in both children and staf
- Grounds developed for play are also suitable for outdoor learning, forest school and use by the community
●Improved connections with parents and community
●Maximising the use of the whole school site and nearby areas for the benefit of children
- Staff and children are happier!