Bury St Edmunds school St Edmund’s Catholic Primary sees ‘positive impact’ from enhancing its play provision through OPAL project

A primary school that has been enhancing its play provision for pupils has said the positive impact is in the ‘many smiling faces’ outside each day.

In January, St Edmund’s Catholic Primary School, in Bury St Edmunds, embarked on an ‘exciting’ new project to improve opportunities and enjoyment through play, in conjunction with Outdoor Play and Learning (OPAL) CIC.

This has seen additions including a puppet theatre, den building, a DJ booth and a wide selection of dressing up clothes.

And now a wellie wall has been created as the first part of a wellie storage project to enable pupils to have all-year-round access to all parts of the school grounds - their 'play landscape'.

Head of school Katie Copeman said they were ‘extremely grateful’ to Clarkes of Walsham for the donation of timber for this first wellie wall and to the time spared and the carpentry skills of John Stebbing, grandparent of two pupils, who constructed the wall.

She added: “As the weather now starts to turn, making some areas of the school grounds too muddy for the children to access when wearing their school shoes, we're keen to get the rest of the wellie walls constructed as soon as possible.

“With school budgets being as tight as they are, we're keen to see if there are other local businesses who would be able to assist us with this project, through donations of materials or labour.”

Mrs Copeman said one reason the school was carrying out the OPAL programme was that childhood has changed, and many children no longer get their play needs met out of school.

She said OPAL is based on the idea that, as well as learning through good teaching, children also learn when they play.

She added as a Rights Respecting School, St Edmund’s already acknowledges that all children have the right to play as stated in the UN convention on the rights of the child and recognises the significant impact that play can have on wellbeing and mental health.

Mrs Copeman said: “Play is an essential ingredient in a child's healthy development. Our engagement in the OPAL programme has already seen some fabulous enhancements to the play provision we have in place for the children at St Edmund’s.

“We're seeing the positive impact of this from the many smiling faces we see outside each day and from the varying types of play that the children are choosing to engage with.

“As well as the staff's support, we've been extremely grateful of the positive support we've had from our parents and other family members within our school community who are also key in enabling us to continue developing the play opportunities we can offer our children."

If local businesses can support the wellie walls project email office@st-edmunds.suffolk.sch.uk