Did you know that children in British primary schools spend 20% or 1.4 years of their school attendance in play ?

Barwic Parade Community Primary School are proud to be working with OPAL to improve our children's play experiences.

The Outdoor Play and Learning (OPAL) Primary Programme is a mentor-supported school improvement programme. It  helps us to address all of the areas we must consider and plan for to strategically and sustainably improve the quality of our play opportunities.

Research shows that play contributes to children’s physical and emotional health, well-being, approach to learning and enjoyment of school. Given the importance of play in children’s lives and current concerns about children’s health and opportunity to access time and space to initiate their own play outdoors, there are considerable benefits for children, parents, school and the wider community from participating in OPAL's programme and improving our play experiences.

We want to develop and deliver a school cultural shift in thinking about and supporting children’s play. We will embed play into school’s policies and practices and establishes clear guiding principles and strategies for initiating positive changes at playtimes. 

Coming Soon

We've been working closely with North Yorkshire Council over the last 7 years to have a Multi Use Games Area built for our children. This would give us a purpose built sports area for PE and ball games (no matter what the weather is doing), leaving our playground free of fast moving balls and free for play. This exciting development is due for completion before our Christmas break in 2023. 

We invited our families to Stay & Play with our OPAL facilities and both children and adults absolutely loved it! On 20th and 28th March, both KS1 and KS2 stayed behind after school as we opened up our OPAL zones for families to enjoy. Thank you to those that joined us. It was a wonderful experience seeing all ages exploring different kinds of play.

^^Year 1/2^^

^^Year 3/4^^

^^Year 5/6^^

^^EYFS / Nursery ^^

Outdoor Classroom Day was a huge success! Even the sunshine joined us as everyone in school embraced our love of the outdoors and nature!

Y1/2 created some amazing portraits using natural materials they found in the forest.

Y3/4 learnt how to tie a clove hitch knot to create a stick frame, then used weaving skills to create a beautiful natural decoration.

Y5/6 studied the artwork of Richard Shilling and Andy Goldsworthy, who use nature to create patterns and designs of different shapes and colours. They found inspiration in the forest and brought their findings back to the classroom to recreate a piece of art

Year 3/4 Went for a trip down to Selby Canal this Outdoor Classroom Day to learn all about safety and hazards near water and roads. We also met a kind gentleman working the locks, who talked to us about how they work. He explained how the water level is controlled to rise and fall to allow boats to move from the canal to the River Ouse!