Platinum award for Alcester school that has changed how much it values play
PLAYTIME has been given a bigger focus at one Alcester school… and brought national recognition.
A change in culture has led to St Nicholas’ CofE Primary School being given the Opal (Outdoor Play and Learning) Platinum award, recognition that puts the school in the top two per cent in the country.
Over the last two years the school has placed increased importance on playtime, with equipment going from a flat football to the likes of go-karts and den building.
Anita Hartley, the outdoor play and learning mental health lead at St Nicholas, said the school was ahead of potential moves for Ofsted to inspect play in schools.
“Ofsted are now saying they need to start inspecting play in school, because many schools aren’t advocating play or don’t see play as being a priority in school,” she said.
“We took it on board even before Ofsted had made this announcement. We decided we want to improve the quality of play. Maths, English and science are obviously always key. Play doesn’t get the same sort of recognition or status, but it does here now. It’s on our school improvement plan.
“We’ve had to change the culture of our school, which is quite hard, and show how we value play. They say now play is 20 per cent of the school day, but it’s not given that priority in school because it’s normally [supervised by] unqualified staff.
“We’ve trained all our staff to be play work members.
“When [OPAL] first came and assessed us our play was just a skipping rope and a flat football, there wasn’t much going on. Now, we do parkour, which is in our den building area, we’ve got go-karts and scooter zones and plenty of role play and imagination.”
Anita added: “I had two children interviewing the lady who was doing the accreditation. They had wooden blocks as microphones and one had a big spring as a cameraman, so that was just them doing it
themselves.
“There's social areas, water plays. We’ve got so much going on across the site, and the children are free to roam wherever they want to. It’s all free choice. It’s driven by
them.
“We have dancing, we’ve got music on every day, so they dance and sing. We have a crossing of genders, so boys are dressing up in fancy dress costumes, even princess dresses, it’s all just being really creative with any resources they can find around the site.”
To get the platinum accreditation the school needed to receive 90 per cent when marked by OPAL, and they achieved 97 per cent.
The recognition comes following calls from the Raise the Nation Play Commission for Ofsted to assess schools on how much time is given to children for play, helping to keep children healthy both mentally and physically.
According to the latest figures from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities, as of November 2024 nine per cent of Reception students in the Henley, Studley, and Alcester area were obese. This rises to 17 per cent for Year 6 pupils.
