- Powell Close, Onslow Village,
- Guildford, Surrey, GU2 7DD
- Telephone: 01483 532726
- Email: info@onslow.surrey.sch.uk
- Powell Close, Onslow Village, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 7DD
- Telephone: 01483 532726 Email: info@onslow.surrey.sch.uk
OPAL
OPAL at Onslow
At Onslow, we are proud to be an OPAL school (Outdoor Play And Learning) and we started our journey in June 2024. We are currently finishing our 18 month long project and are hoping to receive accreditation at the end of 2025. Find out more about it below:
The Outdoor Play and Learning (OPAL) Primary Programme is the result of over 20 years of testing and development in over 800 schools and has been used in Spain, Canada, France and New Zealand. The programme has also been adapted and used in schools in Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Austria under the Play Friendly Schools project. In 2018, OPAL won first prize in an EU-funded award for the best active school’s programme in Europe and two UK national playwork awards. In 2019, OPAL was awarded a quarter of a million pounds by Sport England to bring the programme to many more schools.
OPAL is based on the idea that, as well as learning through good teaching, your children also learn when they play. As 20% of their time in school is playtime, we want to make sure that this amount of time (equivalent to 1.4 years of primary school) is as good as possible. One reason the school is carrying out this programme is that childhood has changed, and many children no longer get their play needs met out of school.
- Average screen time per day is six hours.
- Average outdoor play time per week is five hours.
- Percentage of UK children who only play outdoors with other children at school is 56%.
There are many proven benefits for schools that carry out the OPAL Primary Programme. They usually include: more enjoyment of school, less teaching time lost to disputes between children, fewer accidents and greatly improved behaviour.
Parent Playdays 2025
