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.
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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!
What’s going really well
Self-regulation & independence
- Children are fully engaged without adult direction
- They are choosing activities, sustaining play, and moving between areas independently
Collaboration & social development
- Children playing in groups naturally (water tray, construction, skipping)
- Clear evidence of:
- Turn-taking
- Sharing resources
- Negotiation (“who’s using what”)
- Physical development (gross & fine motor)
- Skipping ropes → coordination, rhythm, stamina
- Loose parts → lifting, balancing, building
- Litter picking → fine motor control + purpose
Creativity & imagination (high-quality play)
- Loose parts used in open-ended ways
- Vehicles + water = imaginative, exploratory play
- Boxes and crates becoming structures
Oracy & communication
- Children clearly:
- Talking while playing
- Explaining ideas
- Social chatting and negotiating
Risk-taking & problem solving
- Balancing on crates
- Moving large objects
- Testing what works (e.g. water play, structures)
Care, responsibility & values (3Rs in action)
- Litter picking → responsibility & respect for environment
- Supporting each other in play
- Looking after resources
- Playtimes are highly purposeful, with pupils independently engaging in a wide range of stimulating, open-ended activities. Children demonstrate strong levels of cooperation, resilience and self-regulation as they collaborate, problem-solve and sustain play over time. The environment enables pupils to take appropriate risks, develop physical coordination and communicate effectively with peers. Opportunities for creativity and imagination are embedded throughout, with pupils using loose parts in innovative ways. Play is inclusive and supports pupils’ personal development, including responsibility, respect for their environment and positive relationships.