Current schools: OPAL school visit - Sacred Heart Primary, Coventry

How do we develop our best teams? How can playtime support us to foster our school's values in all our children - resilience, courage, tenacity, kindness? How do children get their playthings out and put them away? What are the solutions to foxes and sandpits?

11am OPAL schools networking

Discuss your journey with other OPAL school colleagues - share your successes, top tips and ways to overcome some of the challenges.

12–1pm Observation of playtime

Come see a platinum OPAL playtime in action - ask the children about how they manage risk and the grown-ups about the changes they have seen.

1–2pm OPAL introduction meeting

Hear about Sacred Heart's OPAL journey and learn more about the OPAL Primary Programme.

Sacred Heart is a 400+ pupil Catholic primary school located in the east of Coventry City. They started their OPAL journey in 2021 and achieved their platinum award in 2023. Their play offer is outstanding, ensuring every child has a fantastic playtime every single day. The school has a large loose-parts shed, a large, natural sandpit, digging area, water play, den building, music, dressing up, arts and crafts, an extensive forest area and wheeled play area.

The strong play team is very committed to continually improving their play offer, led by a fantastic OPAL working group – and helped by their very supportive parents and local community. The level of purposeful engagement of every child at playtime is awe-inspiring. Whether it is making a five-tiered wedding cake in the messy cafe, building dens in the woodland and sandcastles at the beach, dressing up as Spider-man, banging symbols in the music hut, or simply pushing your mate around in a pushchair, there is not a single child not doing something fun, that they have chosen to do!

Parking is available at the Catholic church on Harefiled Road (CV2 4BT) – it is a five minute walk to Sacred Heart, Bray's Lane.

There are no public transport links available.

The school will provide tea and coffee.

The visit will be led by Rob Francksen (Director of OPAL Leicester Ltd).

Only two tickets per school. If you can no longer come, please let us know so we can release your place to another school.

Host or Publisher OPAL Outdoor Play and Learning CIC