We are very excited to announce that we are an Opal Play school.

Opal Play takes place each lunch time between 12pm—1pm. 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.

Boat - May 2025

Another new arrival for play today. To enhance Opal further, we can now play on our boat. This will encourage us to use our imagination during play and take part in role-play outside.

How wonderful!

Creative play - May 2025

Some creative photos from our forest area during Opal.

This area changes daily. Keep a look out for what the Play Team have planned for the children!

Spring play - April 2025

What a beautiful day for Opal Play!

GoKarts and the forest area - March 2025

Another beautiful Opal Play day!

Our play assembly today was all about how to use our new go-karts. The children have really enjoyed riding these today. Take a look at our lunch play including the forest area which is very popular. We’re sure you can see why.

Winter Play - December 2024

What a lovely week of play so far. Even though the children are very active outside during Opal, please remember to send the children dressed for cold play with a warm coat.

November 2024 - Children in Need and Anti-bullying Week

Today really was a fun packed Friday. To mark the end of Anti-bullying week we have taken part in Friendship Friday. During Opal, the children took the time to tell us what they had done today to make a good friend. Also, as it is Children in Need today, we drew plenty of Pudsey Bears on the chalkboard. All of this and lots of play before going to see author, Simon Hunt for his book reading this afternoon. What a super day we have had!

Stay and Play afternoons- September 2024

Thank you to all of you that attended our Opal Stay and Play afternoons and also a big thank you to our Opal mentor, Amy Campbell, for coming along to be a part of the events and share her wisdom about childhood play.

We were delighted to show you what Opal is all about and how your children engage with play at lunch. We heard so many positive comments and hope you all enjoyed yourselves as much as we did.

Anyone want to come and play again?

OPAL is based on the idea that, as well as learning through good teaching, your children also learns 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 as to why we carry out the OPAL  Programme. They include: more enjoyment of school, less teaching time lost to disputes between children, fewer accidents and greatly improved behaviour. 

For more information about Opal Play please click here https://outdoorplayandlearning.org.uk/

Opal Play News

September 2024 - Wheels!

Our new school year has started so well. Opal Play is well underway and today we introduced lots of new physical play. The wheeled toys are out and we’re all absolutely loving life at Wednesbury Oak! Here are some of the photos taken today at play. There were so many huge smiles and lots of sharing took place. We’re very proud of our children for super sensible play today.

September 2024 - Parent Invite

July 2024 - The Sandpit

The sandpit is officially open!
Here are our first lucky children to play in the sand. Plenty of smiles all round, more fun to follow tomorrow.

June 2024 - Construction Corner

Today we opened Construction Corner. After a very important play assembly this morning, the children all agreed to our risk benefit rules then began getting creative outside during Opal Play. We saw so much imagination, team work, gross motor movements, resilience and most importantly, sheer joy. All of this from stacking pallets, rolling tyres, making dens and much more. To add to the excitement, the children have been donated brand new hard hats , hi-vis vests and clipboards to use in this area from the generous Int-elect (Birmingham) Limited. Thank you so much, you are very kind.

May 2024 - Ball Run Fun

Opal Play has been up and running for a few weeks now, so we decided to introduce a new activity. On Wednesday, we held an assembly to discuss the rules, risk benefits and play ideas for our Ball Run area. Today, the children were greeted on the field by the Play Team along with lots of loose parts to make their own ball runs and had lots of fun in doing so. Tomorrow children, look out for more equipment to make them longer and even better.

April 2024 - Opal Launch day

It’s safe to say our Opal Play launch day went down very well at Wednesbury Oak. The children all got stuck in playing with everything that was out on offer for them today & that was only a fraction of what they will have!

It really warmed our hearts to see the different age groups mix together, something Covid took away from us for a very long time a while back and now here we are enjoying each other’s company, siblings and cousins are able to play together and new friendships are being made. We really must commend Year 6, they really came into their own guiding the younger children and playing with them so kindly.

Thank you children and staff, you really are the best. Here’s to lots of great playtimes to come.