Imaginative Outdoor Play Earns St Wilfrid’s Prestigious Gold Award

The value of creative play has been recognised at a school in Blyth, which has just received an award for its imaginative outdoor play provision.

St Wilfrid’s Catholic Primary attained the OPAL (Outdoor Play and Learning) Gold Award after reconfiguring the school grounds into a series of themed play areas.

“To achieve the OPAL Award, we had to transform our school grounds for the children to be able to play in all areas,” explained St Wilfrid’s OPAL Lead, Luanne Richards, who spearheaded the process alongside the school’s OPAL Play Coordinator Tarnia Gibson.

“We had to zone off the grounds into areas for the children to play and develop imagination,” continued Miss Richards. 

“The changes have been made using all areas of our extensive school grounds, and transforming them into a small world area; sand pit; role-play sheds; water area; prayer garden for relaxing and sound arts and crafts; mud kitchen; dancing and dressing up; sports zone; and wheel zone.”

St Wilfrid’s was supported by the school community and PTA throughout the changes, which took 18 months to complete.

“We have worked closely together with the help of children, staff, and parents to develop the grounds,” said Miss Richards.

 “Children have helped by providing suggestions of what they would like us to include in our play offer. We also run an OPAL after-school club where we invite parents with their children to develop new areas.”

The school, which is a member of the Bishop Bewick Catholic Education Trust, celebrated the achievement with a special ceremony, where OPAL Mentor Andrea Caine was on hand to present the Gold Award.

“The Award is important as it helps our school to stand out as offering fantastic playtimes for our children – which equates to 20 per cent of their time in school per week,” added Miss Richards.

“The staff and children love OPAL, and it has made a huge difference to behaviour during playtimes.”