OPAL

• First, we created our Play Committee.  This includes a parent, staff and governor representative, as well as SLT.  Then we renamed the midday supervisors as the Play Team, and added a few new faces too.
• All staff were trained on the principles of OPAL and the Play Team and committee will continue to be trained at different levels over the 18-month programme.  We have a mentor, Bobby, and will be an accredited OPAL school by the end of the process.  The Play Team are easily identifiable in their yellow visi-vests and can be spotted roaming their areas; interacting and facilitating play.
• We began by collecting donations from our community and started playing with small-world toys, lego, dressing-up, chalk and opening access to more of our site.
• Once we were settled into the new routine, we began introducing Play Assemblies  These allow us to celebrate good play already seen, introduce new items and areas; discussing the benefits and the risks.  We then decide as a whole-school community what the rules of play will be and then share ideas for what the children would like to see next.  We have been able to honour pogo sticks but have not yet organised a swimming pool!
• Being part of OPAL has allowed the adults to think more creatively; saying yes to a speedboat and 100 tyres and trusting that the children will be able to enjoy them.
• New sports are being enjoyed across all ages with hockey and swingball being played together by our youngest and oldest pupils.
• Welly racks were installed to launch the program and pupils have a place to hang their wellies, being active in recognising when it is Welly Day using the signs on their classroom doors.
• Pupils of all ages can be seen negotiating and communicating well with each other and can be seen to be busy and smiling throughout the dinner hour.
• As a participant in OPAL, pupils are expected to respect the items they are playing with and to help pack away.  With everyone helping, we are getting quicker at this and hoping to achieve a 4-minute tidy-up in the near future. We are not far off.

Play assemblies take place most weeks and pupils are keen to take part, sharing their skills on a balance bike or deciding on how best to tackle a pogo stick as a new learner.

We have had our first Community OPAL Development Day which saw families and staff come together at the weekend to create Mansfield’s finest mud kitchen.

To celebrate 6 months of brilliant OPAL lunchtimes, we held a giant obstacle course fundraiser. Pupils went in classes to use the course in the morning and in the afternoon, lots and lots of mud and water were added.  Families were invited to buy a ticket and come and play together.  Pupils, parents and staff had LOTS and LOTS of fun – the obstacles great physical skills and the children had a lot of stamina.  Here’s to the next 6 months and many more!  Well done to all our OPALites.

For ideas of the donations we are collecting (although there is not much we won’t accept), please see our Bingo board:

OPAL Bingo PNB 1 January 2024

The introduction letter, that we sent out at the start of this programme, can be found here:

Parent OPAL Intro Letter

If you would like to read more about the practice of outdoor play and learning, please read this document:

Parents Power Of Play Guidance

You can find our Play Policy here:

PNB Play Policy

Barbies, trains, lego, teddies, ponies, cars, role play – these are popular but don’t last long outside.  Donations are always welcome when you are having a Spring clean.

Pupils can now jump in a boat and let their imagination take them places.  They know how to take turns and climb in and out safely.

Balance bikes, trikes, scooters, go-karts, wiggle cars, pushchairs – even wheelchairs.  We now have many ways to travel.  We began by practising taking turns in the Sports Court but now we can manage to navigate around the whole site sensibly.  We just look where we are going and continue to take turns.

The children are very determined when it comes to being successful pogo artists.  The number of jumps are a good topic of discussion during dinner and we have seen great teamwork in pupils helping each other.

We are lucky enough to have received tractor and truck tyres already as well as a few car tyres.  One exciting lunch time, a local company came and delivered 100 tyres.  The pupils were really good at helping move them and many hands made light work.  Year 6 worked with adults to decide how they should be stored and pupils know how to move, use and store tyres safely.  We will be adding more to this area soon to extend the possibilities.

Year 6 have had an afternoon of OPAL, learning the best and safest way to make an obstacle course in our tyre park.  We have new wooden loose parts and these help make pathways and add stability to the tyres.  The pupils then demonstrated and shared how they checked the obstacle course for safe play.  Rules agreed in our OPAL assembly are:

• make sure each piece is stable before use
• when packing away, four pupils hold the bag and assist
• be careful when moving equipment that your piece is not close to someone’s fingers or toes etc