Our OPAL Journey

June 2026

On Thursday of Week 3 we re-launched the Mud Kitchens in our 7^th OPAL assembly. We celebrated some of the lovely play in OPAL from the start of the new term, which included some wonderful pictures of pupils enjoying the Mud Kitchens.

The rest of the assembly was spent discussing how the Mud Kitchens and resources had not been respectfully enjoyed and what needed to be done differently. The pupils were shown pictures of the cleaned and reorganised Mud Kitchens, and the reorganisation of the space, which had been actioned by Mrs Patrick.

Resources and space cleaned and re-organised

Our water container and hose, which will help us enjoy our Mud Kitchen play.

Pupils were also introduced to new welly storage, which will help them enjoy messy, mud play.

We also discussed the Play Team and how they would be MOVING, CHECKING and GIVING...

From Week 4, the Play Detectives will be presenting OPAL celebration certificates at Friday's Good News assemblies. The certificate winners will be chosen by the Play Team who will be looking out for pupils during the week for their efforts in play, tidying or support of others. We look forward to sharing our newly designed certificates with you!

Our Story Spot seating being enjoyed.

Respectful football play.

June 2026

Unfortunately, the Mud Kitchens were only open for 5 days before needing to be temporarily closed. Pupils had not respectfully played with or looked after the kitchen or the resources, so the decision was made to close the area. The pupils were told it would remain closed until the next OPAL assembly in Week3.

Mrs Patrick, Mrs Pope and Mr Dalziel spent the next 5 days planning and organising for the Mud Kitchen re-launch, which included:

Cleaning the resources
Cleaning the kitchens
Re-organising the space by making it wider
Cutting back the overhanging branches
Reorganising the supervision plan
Holding a play team meeting
Installing welly storage
Creating the 7th OPAL assembly

June 2026

At the end of the first week back we had our 6^th OPAL assembly. We celebrated the huge success of Den Building and enjoyed looking at the photographs which captured our fun and adventures.

Our marvellous Mud Kitchens were launched in the assembly! Pupils were shown the beautifully constructed kitchens and their resources. We spent time discussing the rules for happy and safe Mud Kitchen play. During the assembly we agreed the importance of looking after the resources and enjoying the Mud Kitchens respectfully.

In the assembly we also re-introduced football. We talked about the timetable for each year group and how pupils who play will be expected to follow the ‘rules of play’ linked to our school values:

We also launched our Story Spot seating space for pupils to use and enjoy looking at books.

May 2026

On the last Saturday in May we held a Parent DIY Day at Wessex. We were very fortunate enough to have several parents join us with their tools, skill set, determination and positive attitude!

The sun shone brightly and through the heat we all worked as a super team to sand and varnish the wood used for the building works and also painted

Our wonderful Wessex parents built:

4 new mud kitchens
A role play shop
A performance stage

Wessex is so grateful to the parent team who gave up their time and worked tremendously hard to create new OPAL resources for our pupils. We thank them very much and hope to plan in future DIY Days!! 😊

May 2026

May has been a magnificent month of OPAL fun for us in Wessex. We have thoroughly enjoyed playing with the sandboxes and suitcases and have been so fortunate and grateful for super sunny weather. The odd wet day has certainly not dampened our imaginative play, even if all of our OPAL resources cannot go out when it is raining.

Midway through the half term we had our 5th OPAL assembly, where the pupils were introduced to the Den Building resources! Pupils were shown what resources were available, and we discussed how to store them away correctly.

In our Den Building assembly, we spent time discussing how the resources could be used and shared our ideas for happy and safe play. We all agreed we wanted:

Dens to be packed away and tidied up at the end of lunch.
No one to take resources from other dens.
Everyone to share resources.
Den Building resources to only be used for this activity.

Den building has been a fantastic addition to our OPAL lunch play, and we have built some spectacular structures.

After the Den Building assembly, we also announced the names of the Play Detectives. There were over 30 applications and all the pupils who participated were thanked for their hard work in applying for the role.

7 pupils were chosen to be Play Detectives and have already had their first meeting with Mrs Patrick, our OPAL Play Coordinator. The team will have some daily tasks to complete in the new term, alongside enjoying their OPAL lunch play.

April 2026

On Thursday 30 April, we had our 4th OPAL assembly. We celebrated how successful our play has been and thanked our Sports Leaders and Active 60 Leaders who have been helping the younger children. We also celebrated that a week later we had at least 40 of the play table figures, which was a super effort that we will aim to maintain!

Pupils were told about the PLAY DETECTIVE role and if in Years 4–6 they can apply for the job. We look forward to announcing the team in the next assembly.

In the assembly, we introduced new sand boxes and a group of suitcases. There was a buzz and excitement when everyone heard about the new additions and pupils shared their ideas for happy and safe play. The pupils had so many important ideas to share and listened respectfully to each other.

April 2026

On Monday 20 April we had our 3rd OPAL assembly where we introduced play tables and figures. We talked about the rules for the tables and figures and what we needed to do for happy and safe play. We had a challenge to look after the play figures as 45 were put out in a box.

We also celebrated how well we have been tidying up with speed and teamwork being observed by adults.

April 2026

On Thursday 16 April (the first week back after the Easter break) we had our 2nd OPAL assembly. The pupils were given information on the play ZONES.

Pupils were told about the zone choices and what was available in each zone at lunchtime. Pupils then shared their ideas for OPAL play rules for each zone to help ensure our play is safe and happy!! 😊

In the assemblies, we follow the CINI approach and all pupils from Reception to Year 6 are invited to attend and share their ideas.

Our OPAL ZONES for lunchtime play have been a HUGE SUCCESS. We have all pupils mixing across the outside spaces, with a range of activities and resources available.

Our Zone activities/resources so far include:

Use of the play equipment – trim trail, exercise equipment, climbing frames
Cardboard boxes
Giant Jenga
Giant Connect Four
4 Square with larger balls
Basketball
Materials for seating spaces
Small tables & play figures
Fancy dress
Cuddly toys
Play houses and slide
Chalk
Hoops
Skipping ropes
Space hoppers

We are going to be appointing some PLAY DETECTIVES who will help our OPAL play develop and will introduce you to the team by the end of this half term.

We are also continuing to add to our OPAL resources and activities in the coming weeks, and will update you more before the end of this half-term.

March 2026

During the first week back of Term 3, Ofsted visited Wessex, so OPAL plans were on hold. In Week 3 we had our first OPAL assembly. All pupils from Reception to Year 6 gathered to hear an introduction to OPAL from Mrs Pope and were:

Shown some pictures and videos of OPAL in other schools
Shown the results of the pupil, parent and staff surveys
Asked for help to gather resources for our OPAL play next term.

After Easter, everyone will be informed about a key change as ZONES are being introduced into the outside space.

1st Assembly - Intro to OPAL.pdf

PDF File

February 2026

At the end of the first spring term, we have distributed our staff, parent and pupil surveys, The information gathered will enable us to see the views of our school community on play and we will use feedback to help build our OPAL adventure.

After half-term, in our first whole school assembly, the pupils will be introduced to OPAL and what lunchtimes could look like.

January 2026

Our OPAL mentor (Libby Truscott) led a whole school INSET on Monday 5th January for our school staff (senior leaders, teachers, support staff, office staff and the caretaker). We are all very much looking forward to starting our OPAL journey with Libby guiding us along the way.

Mr Beavan HT, Mrs Pope DHT/OPAL Curricular Play Lead and Mrs Patrick TA/OPAL Play Coordinator met with Libby Truscott (our OPAL mentor) to go through the OPAL audit for the first time. Our Baseline score was 40% (most schools score between 30 - 40% at baseline). As part of the audit, Libby looked at our school site and the play spaces available for our pupils. The feedback from the audit was that our school site has great opportunities to develop wonderful play experiences for pupils.

At the end of January some of the OPAL team met with our OPAL mentor Libby for our first development meeting. We updated our OPAL action plan and discussed some quick 'playtime wins'. We discussed the storage of OPAL resources and how we will repurpose storage accordingly.