Cleadon Church of England Academy

OPAL Play

Our school believes that all children need opportunities to play which allow them to explore, manipulate, experience and affect their environment. Our school acknowledges the UN Charter on the Rights of the Child, especially Article 31, and supports the child’s right to play.

In order to develop the play provision in school, we are being supported by OPAL Play to maximise the resources (time, equipment and school environment) that are available for our children.  

Children from year 1 to year 6 will have the opportunity to go to any area of the yard to participate in the activities that are available.  We will continually review the activities that are available and change or introduce new ones throughout the year. 

Our PTFA are providing a lot of help in funding and resourcing our OPAL play journey because of the benefits that every child will experience.  

November

October

Some of the children in Year 5 have proudly donned their official Opal Play Team hi-vis jackets today. They have volunteered to help monitor the use of the play equipment in our yards ensuring everyone has a fun and safe place to flourish together! We were super impressed with their first day of duties, with lots of positive feed-back, keep up the excellent work team!

September

Our OPAL suggestion box is always full. One of the most popular requests is more climbing equipment. Thanks to the fundraising efforts of our wonderful PTFA we had two sets of monkey bars installed on the school grounds over the summer holidays.  They are a great addition to our Trim Trail and because they are made of high quality composite plastic they will last for many years to come.

July

Mrs Cryer added a slackline to out OPAL provision on the field. Its takes concentration, balance and maybe a little help from a friend to cross the line.

June

We are always working hard working hard to create new areas for the children to explore. We recently launched a home area which is proving to be very popular.

May

March

February

In February we hosted an OPAL play meeting for all parents. You can view this presentation below.

January

The launch of OPAL Play was met with great enthusiasm. We opened 7 new areas plus the gym and trim trails.

Large loose parts

Small World

Construction

Wheeled Area

Games/Sports Area

Costume and Performance Area

Social Area

December

We are hoping to start on our OPAL Journey after the Christmas break. We are pleased to announce that our wonderful PTFA has bought some essential equipment for us. Scooterboards and helmets for the wheeled area, clamps and clips for den building, wellies for the digging area, brushes and rollers for the creative space and storage boxes to keep everything nice and neat.

November

Mrs Cryer had secured us a boat! SeaFury was kindly donated to us this month. She needs a little love but we hope that she will soon be a feature in the children's creative play. If any parents/carers would be able to spare some time to help to restore SeaFury to her former glory it would be very much appreciated!

October

Mrs Cryer and Mrs Dowson have been working really hard to cut a path through the perimiter bushes. We are hoping to use this as a nature pathway and den building area.

September

As a school we will soon be embarking on our OPAL Play journey. We have lots of exciting plans that will provide enriching play for all of our children. At this time, we would like to ask for help from parents and children in the form of donations to get our scheme off the ground. We would like your help to resource 4 exciting new areas within our grounds. Any spare wellies/wet weather gear would also be greatly appreciated (all sizes). Collection bins will be placed outside the main entrance from Monday.