--- title: "OPAL - Outdoor Play and Learning" url: "https://eastersideacademy.co.uk/curriculum/personal-development-and-wellbeing/opal" school: "Easterside Academy" --- # OPAL - Outdoor Play and Learning **Our OPAL Team**![](https://eastersideacademy.co.uk/images/OPAL.png) **Curricular Leads for Play -** Mrs H Seymour / Mr Matthews **Play Coordinators -** Miss Castleton and Mrs C Wilks **Play Leads** - All lunchtime supervisors and TAs **OPAL Champion Governor -** Mr D Elliott **Caretaker -** Mr N Close It has been long recognised that play is **fundamental to a child's health and happiness, development and well-being**. Research has shown that children spend 20% of their time in school playing. As a school, we have reflected upon this and with our **'active' ethos**, made purposeful steps to **improving our break and lunchtimes for children**. Our School Council, with the voice of all our pupils, secured funding to enable us to engage with OPAL, and so our journey began in 2022/23. The OPAL vision is that ***"every child in every school has an amazing hour of high quality play every day"*** and as a school we share this vision and recognise the enormous benefits play has on a child's life. We have developed the OPAL approach and worked with our school community to improve our play provision. Our school grounds are impressive with two traditional play grounds, a MUGA and large field. Traditionally some of these spaces have been underused however through our OPAL project our school site is being transformed to offer the highest quality play experiences whatever the weather. Our outdoor areas are continually being developed and offer an even wider range of play opportunities. The children love playing in all the different areas including rolling in tyres, creating dens, new recipes in the mud kitchen, digging in the sand, creating games with small world toys or zipping round the yard on the scooters. They are having fun and are developing life skills of team work, problem solving, communication, resilience whilst also developing their creativity and imagination. Our OPAL play project is a great success and the children love being outside. Our project goes from strength to strength but there is always more to do so with the support of our OPAL team and fantastic families the world of play will continue to be transformed to capture and inspire our children’s imaginations. ### OPAL Resources - Help Cable Drums Needed 377 KB [Open for printing](https://files.schudio.com/easterside-academy-2/files/documents/OPAL_Resource_Flyer_Cable_Drums.pdf) Small World Toys Needed 397 KB [Open for printing](https://files.schudio.com/easterside-academy-2/files/documents/OPAL_Resource_Flyer_Small_World_Toys.pdf) Dressing-up Clothes Needed 381 KB [Open for printing](https://files.schudio.com/easterside-academy-2/files/documents/OPAL_Resource_Flyer_Dressing_Up_Clothes.pdf) Piping and Guttering Needed 443 KB [Open for printing](https://files.schudio.com/easterside-academy-2/files/documents/OPAL_Resource_Flyer_Piping_and_Guttering.pdf) Tyres Needed 378 KB [Open for printing](https://files.schudio.com/easterside-academy-2/files/documents/OPAL_Resource_Flyer_Tyres.pdf) Pallets Needed 126 KB [Open for printing](https://files.schudio.com/easterside-academy-2/files/documents/OPAL_Resource_Flyer_Pallets.pdf) ### Documents Parent Guide 64 Bytes [Open for printing](https://files.schudio.com/easterside-academy-2) Play Policy 209 KB [Open for printing](https://files.schudio.com/easterside-academy-2/files/documents/EA_OPAL_Policy.pdf) If you would like to find out more, please go to:- ### --- ### Learning Showcase [Embedded content](https://plugins.flockler.com/embed/iframe/17f0326f40b09bcfa6fcdd9f924102c5/19294d67147004432ee94d412df62a8a) ### Curriculum - [Overview](https://eastersideacademy.co.uk/curriculum/overview) - [Early Years](https://eastersideacademy.co.uk/curriculum/early-years) - [English](https://eastersideacademy.co.uk/curriculum/english) - [Maths](https://eastersideacademy.co.uk/curriculum/maths) - [Science](https://eastersideacademy.co.uk/curriculum/science) - [Wider Curriculum](https://eastersideacademy.co.uk/curriculum/wider-curriculum) - [Learning Outside The Classroom](https://eastersideacademy.co.uk/curriculum/lotc) - [High Needs Base](https://eastersideacademy.co.uk/curriculum/high-needs-base) - [Online Behaviour & Safety](https://eastersideacademy.co.uk/curriculum/online-behaviour-and-safety) - [Personal Development and Wellbeing](https://eastersideacademy.co.uk/curriculum/personal-development-and-wellbeing) ![Easterside Academy](https://files.schudio.com/easterside-academy-2/images/logo/Easterside-Logo(1).png) ### Easterside Academy Erith Grove Easterside Middlesbrough TS4 3RG 01642 273006 © Copyright 2026 Easterside Academy School & Trust Websites by [ ![Schudio logo](https://eastersideacademy.co.uk/img/logo/light.png) ](https://www.schudio.com/)