OPAL Play - lunchtime play at Godinton Primary School

Lunchtime Playtimes are changing at Godinton

 At Godinton Primary School we very much value the importance of play in our children’s lives.  With our children spending over 6 hours of their school week playing outside, making this aspect of school life as enjoyable as possible is a key priority for us. We want all our children to experience the excitement of explorative play where they can make discoveries, develop their social skills and let their imaginations run wild - our beautiful school grounds provide us with plenty of space in which to do this.

To help us develop play opportunities further at Godinton we are embarking on an exciting journey by signing up to the Opal (Outdoor Play and Learning) programme.

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 from participating in OPAL's programme. The OPAL Primary Programme supports schools in developing a cultural shift in thinking about and supporting children’s play. The results can be transformational and - at best – spectacular.

To find out more about Opal Play, click here to visit the Opal website.

• Godinton Primary School Play Policy
• Opal Parent information leaflet
• Godinton Primary Opal Risk-Benefit assessment - this document is regularly updated.

We started our Opal Play journey in September 2024 and so far the transformation has been amazing.  There is always a buzz of excitement on the field with children of all ages engaged in creative and imaginative play.  Our Opal Play offer now includes the following areas:

Coming soon … a stage area and see-saw

  We can’t wait to see where our Opal journey will take us and the fantastic opportunities it will provide for our children.

Have a look at our Opal newsletters to find out more about Opal Play at Godinton:

Thank you to everyone who has helped in so many ways to get Opal Play up and running. We are immensely grateful for the donations received so far and are always on the lookout for how we can reuse or repurpose unwanted items as part of play activity. Currently we are looking for donations of:

• Bread crates
• Small world play items (cars, plastic dinosaurs, happyland people etc)
• Tyres

If you have any donations which might help us in any way, please contact our Play Coordinator, Mrs Carr  opal@godinton.kent.sch.uk 

Donation 'THANK YOUs'

We would like to say a huge "Thank you" to the following Companies and people for their generous donations and support: 

The team at HiQ Tyres & Autocare for their donation of tyres. These will be used for tyre runs, den building, small world and much, much more.

Julian Drage for a supply of scaffolding boards from WBM scaffolding.  We will make great use of these to make a mud kitchen and provide covers over our wellington boot storage to enable school shoes to stay dry.

The Entertainer, Dover for donations of Happyland toys. Our children will love playing with these!

Mr Strotten from Willow Pumps for a generous supply of pipes which have been used to create a new problem solving area similar to 'Marble Run' but on a larger scale!

Lance Fellows at The Plumb Centre for a generous supply of pipes and fittings which have been used to create a new problem solving area similar to 'Marble Run' but on a larger scale!

Mr Corkhill at PTS Construction for supplying plastic road barriers.  This donation will help us to make a scooter track on the playground for our children.

 If you have any donations which might help us in any way, please contact our Play Coordinator, Mrs Carr  opal@godinton.kent.sch.uk