At Connaught Junior  School, we are committed to ensuring quality play opportunities are available to all our children. We believe that play is essential for physical, emotional, social, spiritual and intellectual development of each child. Most of our best childhood memories are from playing outdoors, climbing trees and exploring the wide world around us.  

This year we are taking part in an exciting Play Programme. With the help of the OPAL programme we are embarking on an 18 month journey to improve play, behaviour and wellbeing for all at Connaught with the view of sustained improvement in outdoor playground opportunities.

OPAL is an award-winning, mentor supported school improvement programme that addresses all the areas that schools must plan for if they want to strategically and sustainably improve the quality of their play opportunities. OPAL is the only programme of its kind that has been independently proven to sustainably improve the quality of play in British primary schools and is all about using naturally and man made resources to allow children to be inspired and creative at playtime.

Its success comes from a series of interrelated actions undertaken with specialist support from an OPAL mentor. This embeds play into the school’s policies and practices and establishes clear guiding principles and strategies for initiating lasting changes at playtimes.

What does this mean for us

• Happier children
• Children coming into class ready to learn
• A fully inclusive playtime offer
• It allows children an opportunity to be creative and make decisions
• Children develop independence and resilience skills
• Increased social skills
• …. and most importantly fun!