OPAL

We are proud to say that in June 2025, we achieved the Platinum Standard for OPAL Play, the highest accolade available, putting us in the top 1% of all schools nationally with the quality of our outdoor play provision.

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OPAL (Outdoor Play and Learning) is an award-winning, mentor supported school improvement programme that addresses all the areas that schools must plan for if they want to strategically and sustainably improve the quality of their play opportunities. Its success comes from a series of interrelated actions undertaken with specialist support from an OPAL mentor. This embeds play into the school’s policies and practices and establishes clear guiding principles and strategies for initiating lasting changes at playtimes.

‘Play is great for children’s well-being and development. When planning and providing play opportunities, the goal is not to eliminate risk, but to weigh up the risks and benefits. No child will learn about risk if they are wrapped in cotton wool’ - Managing Risk in Play Provision: Implementation guide is published for Play England 2012.

OPAL is a huge part of our school day at Grove Street Primary School and both children and staff look forward to getting outside to play, explore and develop together. We are committed to ensuring high quality play opportunities are available to all our children and believe that play is essential for physical, emotional, social, spiritual and intellectual development of each child.