Our OPAL Journey at Grove Park: 

We are thrilled to announce that, following our OPAL (Outdoor Play and Learning) Audit on 9th July 2025, Grove Park Primary School has been awarded Platinum status – placing us in the top 1% of OPAL schools across the UK. With an exceptional score of 96%, this award recognises the outstanding play opportunities we provide for our children every day.

This achievement reflects our whole-school commitment to making high-quality outdoor play a central part of our ethos and daily practice. In line with Article 31 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), we believe that every child has the right to play. Over the past year, we have worked hard to ensure that this right is embedded in our policies, planning, staffing, and use of space.

We believe that  play is at the heart of childhood  and a vital part of every child’s development. Through our OPAL (Outdoor Play and Learning) programme, we are proud to provide a rich, inclusive, and ever-evolving play offering that inspires joy, creativity, and connection every day.

Our play environment includes a wide range of zones, from the calm zone and sandpit, to den building, digging, water play, small world, and balance zones. We have embraced loose parts and open-ended resources, giving children the tools to shape their own adventures.

At Grove Park, play is not separate from learning – it is learning.

We recognise that:

• • Play is a right, not a privilege – all children deserve quality play every day (UNCRC Article 31).
• • Outdoor play is essential for wellbeing, resilience, and physical and emotional health.
• • Risk and challenge are vital for learning – we support children to explore, problem-solve, and develop confidence through their play.
• • Children learn best when they lead – we give them ownership of their play, time to follow their interests, and space to collaborate and create.
• • Play is learning – it supports language, cooperation, imagination, and lifelong skills.

We are committed to:

• • Embracing all weathers and valuing play throughout the year.
• • Listening to the pupil's voice to shape and improve our zones.
• • Ensuring play is inclusive, meaningful, and valued by all.

Woodland Trust Green School Awards:

We are very proud to share that we have now achieved our final award of Platinum in the Woodland Trust Green School Awards!

To earn this award, we completed two exciting platinum-level tasks:

🌿 Wild Trails
We explored the outdoors, looking closely at different types of leaves and sorting them into categories. We also experienced forest bathing by lying on the grass and seeing the world from a new angle. We took creative viewpoint photographs and then drew our favourite scenes.

🍂 The Woodland Perspective
In this task, we learnt about woodland animals and talked about how they live and survive in their natural habitats. Then, using our imaginations, we designed and named our own unique woodland creatures.

We have loved taking part in these challenges and have learnt  so much about nature and how to protect it. A big well done to everyone involved!

Here are some photos of what our lunchtimes look like...