OPAL Play
Amazing Play, Every Day for Every Child
In September 2025 we started our OPAL play journey with staff training and site planning. By the spring we were ready to introduce OPAL to our children and families. They were so EXCITED!
We have been overwhelmed by the support and generosity of our school and local community. With their help, we started collecting the loose parts needed to transform playtimes for our children.
Join us on our OPAL Play Journey.
Phase 1: Tyres Galore and Cardmaggedon - April 2025
‘Kids these days don’t know how to play unless it’s on an Xbox’
‘It’s not like the olden days’
Ladies and gentlemen, introducing 630 children having the BEST lunchtime with little more than tyres and boxes 🥰
Wandering Wednesday #2 was a massive success. Thanks for supporting us. We’re doing more of the same tomorrow and look forward to working with the children on our next development after the weekend. ☀️ 🛞 📦 🌳
We had a huge delivery of tyres (the first of many) for OPAL Outdoor Play and Learning CIC.
They had been pressure washed before delivery which saved us a huge job 🤩
Some super Y6 children helped to take the tyres from the van to playground.
The general consensus from the work crew was:
‘’These tyres are wet!’’
‘’This is harder than it looks.’’
‘’There is a puddle in mine.’’
‘’I don’t think the box is helping.’’ (This was specific to children trying complete the task whilst wearing a box in their head).
‘’Why are they so wet?’’
After their third or fourth tyre, they had mastered the technique. Turns out the remaining tyres were still wet 😂 🛞
The children have transformed their play with tyres and cardboard. Their imaginations are running wild and their creativity is endless.
We have LOVED watching them play together and support each other 🥰
We are going to step into the next phase of our plan next week and expand the offer for children even more. This will include outdoor reading spaces, small world toys and rocking tunes, just to start 🌳 🦕 📚 🎵 🦖 📕 🎸 ☀️
Phase 2: Small World Toys including approximately 835 dinosaurs! - May 2025
It is impossible to truly sum up just how colossal the change in play times has been in the last few weeks. We are ALL having an absolute blast!
This week, we have introduced heaps of additional low risk loose parts: dress up, Lego, Duplo, hundreds of dinosaurs, reading, books, a plethora of pots and pans, playground chalk, den building, dolls and action figures and music (with our resident DJ, Mr O - he takes requests).
The play between children of all ages has been just wonderful to see (it makes us a bit emotional, actually 🥹 🥲). Children are being children - silly, fun, carefree.
Highlights of the week:
- Year 6 boys discovering the dressing up box and squeezing themselves into age 5-6 costumes.
- That absolute cry of glee when they discovered the mountain of Duplo waiting for them.
- The den building team work… they take their construction responsibilities very seriously.
A massive shout out to our lunch time staff. They have embraced this project and are so passionate about making it the abolute best it can be for the children 👏 🤩 💪
We are going to continue adding more loose parts in the coming weeks so we will keep you posted.
The weather is starting to turn this week, we made the most of the sunshine on Friday. Here are some of the highlights. The small world toys have really gone down a treat this week.
Even on wetter, colder days, there will still be an Opal play offer for the children - we will have lots of loose parts that can get a bit soggy without getting ruined, and still be great fun to play with.
Watch this space for our next plea… who knows what we will be asking you to hunt for next!
