It has long been recognised that play is fundamental to a child’s health, happiness, development and well being. Research has also shown that children spend 20% of their time in school playing. The OPAL (Outdoor Play and Learning) vision is that “every child in every school has an amazing hour of high quality play every day” and at St Joseph’s we share this vision and recognise the enormous benefits play has on a child’s life.
We have dedicated OPAL leaders that support everyone’s play and make sure everyone is having fun. Our outdoor areas are continually being developed to offer a wider range of play opportunities. The children love playing in all the different areas including rolling in tyres, creating dens, new recipes in the mud kitchen, digging in the mud, or creating games with small world toys. They are having fun and are developing life skills of team work, problem solving, communication and resilience whilst also developing their creativity and imagination.
