25 November, 2025
Outdoor Play and Learning – Gold Award!
Over the past 2 years, Shaftesbury Primary School has been working with a company called Outdoor Play and Learning, also known as OPAL.
OPAL mentors have been working closely with our staff to develop our play curriculum, ensuring that all playtimes are positive, enjoyable and rewarding for all children. OPAL’s vision is that every child in every school has an amazing hour of high-quality play every day – with no exceptions! The children have played an integral role in the OPAL development and have embraced the positive change in playtimes.
Mr Smiley, Mrs Edwards and Mrs Crockett have driven this project forward within school and our final assessment was in the summer term.
We are very pleased to announce the following:
Shaftesbury Primary School has achieved the Gold Award status from OPAL for our dedication to high quality play provision. Playtimes are inclusive, joyful and provide a wonderful variety of types of play for all children to enjoy.
This is a huge achievement for Shaftesbury Primary School, and we are very proud of our GOLD award. In the coming weeks we will be holding a presentation assembly, run by our OPAL mentor, where we will be officially presented with the Gold Award.
