Outdoor Play and Learning (OPAL)
Our Partnership with OPAL
WE'VE GONE PLATINUM
NEW FOR 2025 - PLATINUM AWARD
We are delighted to share the exciting news that our school has been awarded OPAL (Outdoor Play and Learning) Platinum Status – the highest level of recognition!
Over the past two years, we have worked hard to transform play across our school. With the support of the OPAL programme, our staff, pupils, and wider community have reimagined playtimes, creating opportunities that are more inclusive, creative, active, and fun than ever before.
This achievement reflects not only the incredible dedication of our staff but also the enthusiasm and imagination of our children, who have embraced new ways to play, explore, and learn together. From loose parts play and outdoor adventure to scooters and musical play, our playground has become a place of imagination, physical activity, and discovery.
Becoming an OPAL Platinum School means that our play provision is considered “outstanding” – and we couldn’t be prouder of this recognition. We believe that play is an essential part of every child’s development, and this award shows our commitment to ensuring all pupils benefit from the very best opportunities every day.
A huge thank you goes to our school community – staff, families, and, of course, our children – for helping us reach this incredible milestone.
We would also like to extend a huge thank you to a number of companies who have supported us so generously in transforming our outdoor spaces and providing many of the resources that our children enjoy today:
Wildscapes Coop CIC – for beautifully landscaping our library garden area, donating wellies to support wet play, and building picnic benches and summer shade.
Parius Construction & Interiors and DAB Civil Engineering Contractors – for kindly donating many of the large loose parts that have become firm favourites with our children during playtimes.
Your generosity has helped us to create exciting, sustainable play opportunities that will benefit our pupils for years to come. We are incredibly grateful for your support in helping us achieve OPAL Platinum!
The Outdoor Play and Learning (OPAL) Primary Programme is the result of over 20 years of testing and development in over 800 schools and is based on the idea that, as well as learning through good teaching, children also learn when they play. As 20% of their time in school is playtime, we want to make sure that this amount of time (equivalent to 1.4 years of primary school) is as good as possible.
Benefits
- More physical activity over the year
- Develop life skills:
- resilience
- risk management
- improved decision making
- social skills
- team building
- negotiation
- Improved mental health and well-being
- 100% of girls more active
- Improved behaviour
- Less accidents and incidents
- More inclusive; no child is bored or left out
- Increased learning time as children are settled and ready to learn
- Cost saving (SLT and teachers time)
Donate Your Wellies
Please speak to Mr Weaver or Mrs Snape about your donations, or leave your donations at reception.
As we improve play opportunities for our children at lunchtime, one of our priorities is providing children with more play resources. Can you help us? We are looking for welly donations! Woodstock aims to have enough for every child in school to access the outdoor environment in wet conditions.
We would also love to receive donations for our children to play with at lunchtime. We welcome any unwanted or extra toys, or anything else that you feel may be useful for our children's playtime; suggestions include:
- dolls
- prams
- mini cars
- dinosaurs
- farm animals
- lego
- scooters
- crates
- suitcases
- soft toys
- fabrics
Our Plans
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