OPAL North East

OPAL case study: Thomlinson Junior School, West Cumbria

“OPAL has become a huge part of our school culture. Children are extremely appreciative of having it and say they feel very lucky.” 

Before OPAL, we had a lot of children who were bored and many who struggled to interact and make friendships. Children who enjoy physical activities, like football or the gym, were happy outside but many children would walk around aimlessly. Some would be on their own. Many days, we would have arguments or fallings out. Most of which, we believe, was down to boredom.

As we are a Resourced Provision, we have children with difficulties, both developmental and behavioural. We wanted to engage all children in their playtime and make sure we have something for everyone!

The children are so much happier! Our playground is filled with laughter!

OPAL has had a huge impact. Children are engaging with one another, communicating, role playing and using their imagination. They are playing with children they never would have before. They have so many more opportunities to develop physically – lifting, rolling, jumping and hanging to name a few! 

We have worked a lot on decision-making and judging risk. Children think about how they can achieve things safely. Their problem solving skills are also improving. We have talked to them about their resilience. Many children would want an ice pack or a plaster, or to come indoors if they hurt themselves. Now, we see children much more resilient and managing without unnecessary intervention.

Every child has the opportunity to play where or with whatever they want.

Our SEND children spend play time outside with the rest of school. We have nothing that is only allowed for certain groups of children. We have a child who struggled to self regulate and found playing with others very challenging. He will now play with the sensory equipment –water trays, mud kitchen etc – quite happily alongside other children.

Our attendance has steadily increased over the last couple of years. 

Our average attendance is just over 96%. We do believe a big part of that is that children are enjoying school more because of the playtimes. We have less behaviour issues too, like arguments and fallings out. Children are occupied and can find something to do, which keeps them busy.

Our accidents have dropped slightly despite the fact we have much, much more equipment outside, including equipment which does hold some potential of risk. However, this term we have seen a dramatic drop on last term already after doing some work in assemblies on resilience and introducing a new triage system. I would hope this continues to see a drop in accidents going forward.

OPAL has become a huge part of our school culture. 

Children are extremely appreciative of having OPAL and say they feel very lucky. Children are involved in the development of the programme, from creating safety rules, assessing damage to manning zones. Playtimes have become a huge strength of the school with everyone involved, very positive about it. Parents, PTA and governors have totally embraced the journey and support it wherever they can.

Staff have loved to see how the playtimes have changed. They see how happy and engaged the children are now and say it is lovely to see children ‘playing’ again.

Angela Brown, Deputy Headteacher, Thomlinson Junior School, West Cumbria

OPAL case study: Fatfield Academy, Washington, Sunderland

“Behaviour has improved greatly; our children have more to do and are therefore kept busy.” 

Before OPAL, our playtimes were very basic. Children couldn’t always access the field in all weathers and our yard was just a concrete square with two basketball hoops and a box of PE resources. Behaviour wasn’t great because there was little to do so we needed to do something. 

We began our OPAL journey to give our children more opportunities at lunchtime. 

Children love playtimes now. 

They love using the large construction area to build dens using their imagination, creativity and critical thinking skills. They are always coming up with new designs. Behaviour has improved greatly; our children have more to do and are therefore kept busy. 

Children can go freely between yards so children across school are mixing regardless of age.  This supports younger children with their development and older children with their creativity and imagination.

OPAL gives our children opportunities that they may not have elsewhere.  

Our children love that they have access to all areas and more equipment. It’s nice to watch the children persevere using the equipment such as riding a bike without stabilisers for the first time, learning to jump unaided on a pogo stick or skate around the yard in roller skates.

Staff enjoy seeing what the children come up with and that each day is different. Our parents enjoy coming along to our OPAL play days. Additionally, they support us with gathering resources and fundraising. 

Stacey Grotz, Fatfield Academy

OPAL case study: Roseberry Primary and Nursery School, Durham

Behaviour issues at lunchtime are very few and far between. It’s as if they don’t have time to argue anymore because they are too busy playing! 

Before OPAL, there wasn’t a great deal for the children to do. Football tended to dominate the yard and often led to disagreements between pupils and staff. There was an element of disrespectful behaviour towards the lunchtime supervisors which meant that behaviour issues at lunchtime then had to be dealt with by teachers after lunchtime. Our children all played separately; Reception, KS1 and KS2 all had their own separate yards. 

Now, children are a lot happier at lunchtime, you can see it on their faces. 

Children look forward to going out to play and they are excited by the activities on offer. There is definitely a happy atmosphere outside. 

Children are engaged in a lot more physical activity now than they were before. Football is now not the only sport that is played. We offer a variety of sports on our sports yard including tennis, hockey, netball, badminton and dodgeball. The field is used much more often and children have the opportunity to run, climb and swing, which they didn’t have before. 

We have worked hard to ensure that our playtimes are suitable for everyone.

As our children play together from Reception to Year 6, we have seen an increase in the older children being able to play a supportive role for the younger children. Our Y6s are buddies for Reception and this has continued into their play outside of school. Because the play offer is for everyone, it has meant that older children are able to play with toys or dolls or dress up. These are activities they probably wouldn’t have engaged in previously for fear of ridicule by their peers. Children are improving their turn taking abilities, they share more and work together more with different people. 

Children have been able to develop their skills in a range of settings that simply weren’t available to them before – whether this is den building, riding a bike, working out how to transport water from one place to another or building a tunnel in the sandpit. What’s lovely is that these skills are often developed by children in groups. 

We have worked hard to ensure that our playtimes are suitable for everyone, whether that means adapting an activity or providing some one-to-one support. We are very keen to make sure that all children are able to take advantage of the many activities we offer. 

We have definitely seen an increase in resilience and their willingness to ‘have a go.’ 

We have a big tunnel on the field and it was wonderful to witness children having the courage to jump off the top of the tunnel many times after initially thinking it was too high. The wheeled area is another good example of children persevering with something until they have mastered it. We have a few children who have learned to ride a bike because of access to the wheeled area. Older pupils support younger children to develop these key life skills.  

Behaviour issues at lunchtime are very few and far between. 

It’s as if they don’t have time to argue anymore because they are too busy playing! Children come back to class settled and focused for the afternoon ahead. Play types such as ‘rough and tough’ play are now actively part of our play provision which historically may have led to behavioural issues. Children now know how to participate in this play type successfully. 

We also have seen a greater resilience to minor accidents during play. Because of the size of our setting, we now have more first aid trained play team members, which means more minor first aid accidents are recorded. We actively encourage our pupils to manage their risks and their decision making whilst playing.   

Staff enjoy playtimes now as their roles have completely changed. 

They now all see themselves as part of a very strong play team. Initially, some of our staff members were concerned about the risky play we were implementing. Now, as we enter our third year of OPAL, our staff actively encourage the pupils to take risks within their play and enjoy designing and developing new play zones within our setting. Staff are a lot happier on duty and it has really strengthened relationships between staff and pupils. There is a real buzz at lunchtimes now. 

Parents have been amazing with their donations and we couldn’t have done it without them.

We used the bingo cards (an OPAL resource to help schools collect ‘loose parts’) at the start and we had a fantastic response. This has continued and whenever people have a clear out at home, they always ask if we want anything before they get rid of it. The Big Play definitely helped with this as parents could see how brilliant our play offer is and they got to see how we use their donations.

Emma Dunn and Gemma Morton, Roseberry Primary and Nursery School, Durham

OPAL case study: Esh Winning Primary School, Durham

“Providing a rich play environment allows the children to develop skills and evaluate their own risks. Our playground is a hive of activity which aids the wellbeing of our children.” 

Prior to OPAL, play was very different at Esh Winning Primary. Each key stage had their own part of the playground and children could not mix with different age groups. There was also a ruling at one point (prior to my time!), where children were not “allowed” to run outside due to the number of collisions that were occurring. 

Now, there are no restrictions within our school grounds. Each child can freely choose where they want to play and who they play with. We have created an enriched environment where the children are the driving force behind every decision. We have recently introduced “Feel Good Fridays” where we bring a huge speaker outside for the children to dance to music which, now, is a firm favourite. Our wooded area is also very popular.

OPAL has helped our children to build their confidence and develop their resilience. 

Every child now enjoys active playtimes, and all children have many opportunities to build friendships with different age groups. Providing a rich play environment allows the children to develop skills and evaluate their own risks. Our playground is a hive of activity which aids the wellbeing of our children. 

The children now have space and equipment to play with which keeps them engaged throughout the whole of lunchtime/playtime. This has resulted in a change of behaviour prior to OPAL.

Teaching staff have commented that the children are more focused and readier to learn after play which benefits everyone. Our play team is now able to play and engage with the children rather than having to “police” the playground as the children’s behaviours are now focused on play rather than disruption.

Our play offer is inclusive – all of our children look forward to break times and lunchtimes. 

Our OPAL working group regularly meets to discuss each aspect of play we provide for the children, ensuring our play environment is inclusive to all. The children can fill in our OPAL suggestions slips which allows them to suggest items or equipment they would like to have in the playground. Our school council members collect and discuss these suggestions with our play leader on a weekly basis. 

Providing an environment where each child can have free choice has built their confidence. One specific child does not like noise or crowds within school. They tend to shy away from other children. The first day we introduced boom box Friday this said child was on the field, singing and dancing with all the other children. They led a conga line through the playground. The confidence this child had shown was unbelievable. 

We are very fortunate to have parents that support us with OPAL. 

Our parents understand why we facilitate the play process and what benefits it has for their children. We invite parents/carers to come to family learning days where they can see what our playtimes entail at Esh Winning Primary. 

We are now at a stage where our parents/carers understand their child may come home dirty, but they understand how much enjoyment their child is having at school. It is fantastic to hear parents/carers talking about their children being involved in OPAL and being able to assess their own risks! 

We have seen a decline in accidents and incidents at playtimes.

Before OPAL was introduced the children had limited space which led to many bumps and disagreements. Now they can access all our grounds, each zone does not get overcrowded which has led to a decline in accidents. It is a playground, so accidents are going to happen, but since OPAL was introduced there has definitely been a decline in how many accidents occur.

Playtimes and lunchtimes used to be a source of anxiety, where children and staff were on high alert for negative engagements. However, there has been positive feedback from our teaching staff about how our outdoor times are more relaxed and enjoyable. Our lunchtime play team is fully on board with our OPAL play. They enjoy lunchtimes as much as the children do. 

OPAL has transformed our whole school. 

We would recommend the OPAL programme to other schools that are wanting to ensure all children get access to good quality play. It does have its challenges, but the impact has been phenomenal. Take it a step at a time and don’t expect everything to happen overnight. Eventually it will all come together. 

Caroline Hodgson, Headteacher, Esh Winning Primary School

OPAL case study: Archibald First School, Gosforth, Newcastle

“I cannot emphasise how incredible it is seeing our children from Reception to Year 4 actively playing and engaging with each other.”

Before OPAL, we thought our playtimes were fun times. Over the last year or so, we had invested in playground equipment and this was available for the children to use. On reflection, our playtimes were okay but they are SO much better now!

Children’s favourite play opportunities now include being able to go onto our grassed area every day and playing hide and seek in the bushes, den building where they create huge structures and stand on the top of them, and the Duplo area – a huge hit with the year 4 children.

Some of the impacts we have seen since improving our playtimes are:

• Children are less likely to seek adult attention for minor first aid when they have fallen. They are also less likely to complain about friends falling out.
• The majority of children are physically active and there are more opportunities for building strength – eg climbing structure, den building, lifting heavier objects.
• Children from different year groups play together and they use their imagination – eg creating their own songs and dances on the stage or making assault courses.
• Children take more risks and are happy with their achievements – eg building towers to jump from, building structures from Duplo or wooden blocks or balancing on stilts.

Play is definitely more inclusive now. 

At the start we had a higher number of children who required one-to-one support when outside. Fewer now need this as, throughout their OPAL journey, they have developed their play skills. We have had children with cerebral palsy who are wheelchair dependent and they have loved playtimes with their friends.

Children who previously found playtimes challenging now join in with a range of activities. For example, one of our younger children would stand at the edge of the playground, holding his ears and not joining in at all. Now he draws on the chalkboards, rides a scooter, builds with the Duplo and plays in the water. 

Our parents are very supportive and they always have been – we are very lucky. 

With regards to our OPAL journey, our parents have responded really well to our pleas for donations so we have to say a huge thank you to them. They are incredibly positive and comment on the provision and, most importantly, how their children talk about the fun they had had. 

The staff would use a lot of positive adjectives (about playtimes). The timetabling can be a pain due to staffing changes, trips, absences etc but the school team are brilliant and always work together to find a remedy as quickly as possible. They are a fabulous team!

We have seen a decline in accidents and incidents at playtimes.

Prior to the start of OPAL we would be giving out a lot of ‘wet paper towels’, spending time focusing on friendship issues and minor fallouts and teachers often spent the first ten minutes of the next lesson further addressing incidents. This is no more… The number of genuine accidents has not decreased but the number of incidents and complaints has dramatically decreased. 

The children simply want to play; they have become more resilient in their relationships; have a wider range of peers to play with and there is a genuine level of understanding that we can all play what we want.

Our community has really come together. 

OPAL is led by two of our teaching assistants (one a qualified teacher and the other an HLTA). The amount of work that they have put in has been commendable and this has been recognised by all the other staff who in turn work hard to make it a success.

Our lunchtime supervisors are fully on board, being a part of the OPAL team and regularly feeding back about our provision at lunchtime. They have taken ownership of OPAL and work the rotas between themselves when inevitably things change such as staffing.

Visiting headteachers and other professionals have also commented positively on our breaks and lunchtimes, and we have even shown other school staff who are considering embarking on OPAL around our school.

The impact on our children is the most crucial part. 

I cannot emphasise how incredible it is seeing our children from Reception to Year 4 actively playing and engaging with each other. We have established a wide range of zones/opportunities, so there really is something for everyone! 

Their imaginations come alive through their play, they are increasingly becoming more responsible for equipment and they have ideas on how we can develop our provision even further. The biggest result has been the decrease in what we call the ‘whingeries’ – the children bounce back from any trip or minor scuff eager to play and to be with their friends!

Becky Turner, Headteacher, Archibald First School