Maple Cross JMI and Nursery

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Our Vision

Maple Cross definition of play: Play, through a child’s eye, is a joyful exploration, inclusive of everyone, where friendships are built, imaginations grow, and learning happens naturally - rain or shine.

OPAL, which stands for Outdoor Play and Learning, is the philosophy our school started at lunchtimes from September 2024.

You can learn more about OPAL by viewing the official OPAL website - https://outdoorplayandlearning.org.uk/the-opal-primary-programme/

We are inspired to see how much of an impact improving play can make to our school. We are not just talking about playtimes being a bit less bother or about children being a bit happier. We are talking about a cultural transformation.

Our vision is that every child, in our school, has an amazing hour of high quality play every day – with no exceptions.

If one child is not enjoying playtimes, then things still need improving. We want to resource and evaluate the quality of our play provision, as it is not only an important human right, but is essential to all aspects of children’s development - and play is a source of joy and happiness that every child can access.

Types of Play

Did you know that there are 16 different types of play? They can be categorised into 4 sub sections;

Learning about the physical world,
Learning about ourselves and how to be in the world,
Learning about our bodies and limits,
Learning about what it is to be human

Even when we play, we are learning. It's such an important part of the school day.

Furthermore, play supports self-regulation as a key developmental mechanism: this ability is increasingly shown to be vital to academic success. That's why, at Maple Cross school, OPAL is so important!

Our Play Team have recently been learning about each type of play and how we are going to make it even better.

OPAL Play Team

Mrs K Osmond

Ms J Dorsett

Ms H Robinson

Mrs S Duce

Mrs C Turner

Mrs N Pargeter

Mr G Asante

Ms K Marie-Celine

Ms L Reid

Ms L Archer