OPAL - Outdoor Play and Learning - Article 31: We have the right to rest and play.

Today we received a boost to our OPAL stock thanks to the very kind Project Manager of the LCA Community Charity, Chris Williams.  Chris is involved in helping local charities and vulnerable adults and children in our community. At the moment he is also project-managing the Pactaway Project which is aiming to provide a holiday village for under-privileged children, which will enable them to enjoy activity holidays in Northumberland. Chris kindly donates items to our Opal Play so that the children have new and exciting items to play with.

As part of Chris's work, he furnishes housing for previously homeless and is always in need of furniture items ie sofas, chairs, tables, wardrobes, units, electrical goods. So if you have any unwanted items you think Chris could use, please telephone him on 01207542250 or Mob: 07593107309 collection is not a problem, or you could drop off at Whinfield Industrial Estate, Woodside Walk, Rowlands Gill, NE39 1EN.

ps Chris would love to receive bicycles (of any size) for the Pactaway Project, so if you have an outgrown one you would like to go to a good home, please let Chris know.

Exciting playtimes are here!

We would like to tell you about an exciting new opportunity that our school has embarked on which will help us to improve the quality of play for all of our children. Working with an organisation called OPAL (Outdoor play and learning), we are looking at how best we can provide a range of challenging and fun opportunities at playtimes and lunchtimes.

Play has changed hugely over the last 25 years as the world has become a much busier and more technologically developed place. Children sadly sometimes miss out on the physical, creative side of play that is so important to their development. OPAL has been designed to give children the sense of freedom that perhaps we all enjoyed as children but that the modern world sometimes denies us.

We are committed to ensuring quality play opportunities are available to all of our children at Ravensworth Terrace as we believe that play is essential for children’s physical, emotional, social and intellectual development.

Our vision for play at Ravensworth Terrace:

We would like play in our school to become a freely chosen activity which your child will find satisfying and enjoyable. It will provide them with an opportunity to use their intuition, be physically active, be creative, make their own decisions, be outdoors and overall have fun.

So what does this all mean?

How we play during lunch times is changing over the next 12 months or so. Children are now offered new challenges and allowed to play with a range of new equipment and resources. Children are allowed access to different parts of the school such as the field if they have suitable footwear. Children will be allowed to play outdoors in most weathers and you may find your child maybe a little dirtier when they arrive home. The new ways to play will be introduced slowly and we will of course work closely with all children on developing their resilience and risk assessment skills.

We have a play policy and long term plan to continue to develop play and our school lunch time staff have been trained and are positively motivated to support play. We feel this is an exciting time at Ravensworth Terrace and do hope you will support our changes and efforts to improve the quality of play for everyone.

Please visit www.outdoorplayand learning.org.uk and click the ‘How we help Primary Schools’ section. Have a look at the video gallery, I’m sure you’ll be impressed! Follow us on Twitter @RavensworthTer as I will be regularly tweeting the children enjoying their outdoor play.