Outdoor Play and Learning (Opal)

Heathrow Primary School, Harmondsworth Lane, Sipson, West Drayton, Middlesex, UB7 0JQ

020 8759 1628

office@heathrowprimaryschool.co.uk

Outdoor Play and Learning (Opal)

Introduction

Heathrow Primary School recognises the importance of the need for high quality sustainable play for children regardless of their needs and abilities and that inclusive play is achieved by offering carefully considered outdoor spaces that offer a real choice of accessible play opportunities.

Commitment

At Heathrow Primary School, we want to help children to be safe, reliable, independent and successful citizens for the 21st century, embodying our Heathrow Values. We want to ensure each child is making appropriate progress in line with school achievement aims. We aim to give our children confidence and a desire to achieve their full potential.

Heathrow Promise:

To be informed by the children and work with the children to create a space that is exciting, engaging and enthuses children, where they feel safe to take risks and explore their world
To work in partnership with parents and the community making use of local expertise
Build projects collaboratively, respecting existing boundaries

We are developing our outdoor play and learning with support from the OPAL (Outdoor play and Learning) programme (http://outdoorplayandlearning.org.uk)

“The OPAL Programme is a mentor supported, year-long programme to enable a sustained, long-term improvement in the quality of playtimes at primary schools.”

The OPAL Programme rationale is that: “More active and creative playtimes can mean happier and healthier children, and having happier, healthier, more active children usually results in a more positive attitude to learning in school, with more effective classroom lessons, less staff time spent resolving unnecessary behavioural problems, fewer playtime accidents, happier staff and a healthier attitude to life”.