What is OPAL?

OPAL is Outdoor Play and Learning…

At Chappel Primary School we very much value the importance of play in our children’s lives.  With our children spending over 6 hours of their school week playing outside, making this aspect of school life as enjoyable as possible is a key priority for us. We want all our children to experience the excitement of explorative play where they can make discoveries, develop their social skills and let their imaginations run wild – our beautiful school grounds provide us with plenty of space in which to do this.

OPAL is a way of encouraging our children to take part in freely chosen, child-directed play, just for the fun of it!

At lunchtimes, our children are free to play, creating their own games and precious memories with a huge range of large and small everyday items. We believe our lunchtimes should be used for all children to experience opportunities, build friendship, negotiate, problem solve, share, show resilience and to have a great time!

Every child deserves amazing play; everyday.

We have a school Opal Play Charter. Please click here to access the document.

Click here to see the All weather and seasonal access document.

How Can You Help?

If you’d like to help our children in their OPAL play, you could donate any of the following:

• car tyres – large and small
• large cardboard boxes
• tarpaulins
• small world toys – Lego, dolls etc
• small digging tools, such as trowels (no forks please)
• plastic crates
• scooters and baby buggies
• buckets and spades
• old pots and pans and other kitchen utensils
• play tents and old playhouses
• large plastic pipes and guttering
• coloured chalk
• dressing-up clothes
• picnic blankets
• clean decorating brushes

Children at play at Chappel