St Mary's Catholic Primary School
This is our school, let peace dwell here
St Mary's Catholic Primary School are proud to be an OPAL school. OPAL 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. OPAL is the only programme of its kind that has been independently proven to sustainably improve the quality of play in British primary schools. St Mary's began their journey with OPAL in September 2024 and we are working to achieve our OPAL award over the next 2 years.
OPAL is based on the idea that, as well as learning through good teaching, your 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.
There are many proven benefits for schools that carry out the OPAL Primary Programme. They usually include: more enjoyment of school, less teaching time lost to disputes between children, fewer accidents and greatly improved behaviour.
Key Dates and Collections:
Friday 29th November OPAL Own Clothes Day!
Children will be able to wear their own clothes to school in return for a donation of a 'loose part' for us to play with. We will be giving each year group a different loose part to bring in and the year group which brings in the most parts will win the Golden Welly Award.
Monday 2nd December
Our new OPAL shed opening!
Nature Spa Collection
We are adding to our mud kitchen by opening a nature spa. If you have any old make up brushes, hair accessories or stylers, please pop them in the donation box at school.
Mrs Thorogood - Curricular Lead for Play
Mrs Hicks - Play Co-Ordinator
Play Team:
Mrs Russel | Mrs Skinner Coombs | Mrs Harnett |
Mrs Butcher | Mrs Acteson | Mrs Mysak |
Mrs McKenna | Mrs Avery | Mrs Wood |
Miss Traveller | Miss Krause | Mrs Martin |
Mrs Kemp | Miss Simpson | Mrs Waller |
Mr Whorlow | Miss Smitherman | Mrs Nash |
Miss Lamming | Mrs Simpson | Mrs McKinlay |
Play is not messing about. It is the process evolution has come up with to enable children to learn all of the things that cannot be taught, while also having so much fun. There are certain things children must have in order to be able to play. These include:
Having clothes that they can play in.
Having things to play with - including loose parts.
Having a certain amount of freedom.
As the school improves play opportunities for children, you may find we ask you for resources and make changes about how the children use the school grounds. They may use more of the grounds, for more of the year. Your children may get a bit messier, be exposed to more challenges and have greater freedoms to play where, with whom and how they like. The experiences the school are fostering are essential for children’s physical and mental wellbeing and are in line with all current good practice advice on health and safety, wellbeing and development.
We will need regular donations to keep adding to the play opportunities for our children. As we start out, we are asking for specific items each week (watch out for posters around school and Dojo announcements). However there are regular items which we will always gratefully receive, for example:
- cuddly toys
- small world items (figurines, dinosaurs or animals, cars and planes etc.)
- suitcases
- mud kitchen resources: old pans, colanders etc.
- fabrics and tarps
- dressing up clothes (especially wigs)
- chalk
- wellies and water proofs
- cardboard boxes
- loose parts (see below)