OPAL (Outdoor Play And Learning)

We are now officially a Platinum OPAL School! 

Welcome to the St. Bede's Catholic Junior School OPAL page. Here we will keep you informed of everything that we are doing to improve play for our children.

St. Bede's Catholic Junior School fosters a truly Christian community which works together to facilitate the growth of the whole person, and empowers each individual to experience

"life in all its fullness." (John 10;10)

We recognise that play is an essential part of a happy and healthy childhood. We aim to provide high quality, enjoyable play experiences for all children across the school.  We will do this by providing carefully considered outdoor spaces,  play structures and resources that offer a rich choice of accessible play experiences for every child.  We will refer to the school's mission and the Play and Risk Management Policy in all decisions that affect our children's play.  We are committed to providing the strategic and operational leadership needed to provide and maintain quality play provision for all of our children.

We want to share this journey with all of our families and show you how much fun playtimes have become.  We recently held our first Parent/ Carer Stay and Play session which - despite the appalling weather - was attended by lots of really enthusiastic, and some quite energetic, family members.  More of these to follow.

We also need your help in donating 'loose parts' play resources. Please look at the policy and other documents on this page to understand a bit more about our intentions for play and to see what we will need a constant supply of because when things are played with by 307 children they get worn-out quite quickly.  We want to keep playtimes stimulating and well resourced and to maintain this, we need regular donations.  Thank you to everyone who has already donated.

Please speak to Mrs. S. Lloyd-Green or Mr. S. Stalker about anything OPAL related.