Look around the outdoor area at Crawfords CofE Primary School in Haughley, Suffolk and it is equipped with large loose parts – lots of tyres, wooden beams, pallets, crates, tarpaulin – and busy, engaged children. They are problem-solving in the construction area, others are den-building, digging in a sand pit and working together to make mud pies, while children are dancing to music on a stage and dressing up or relaxing in a quiet, sensory area with their friends. Some children are even on the field balancing and running on top of big cable drums.
This isn’t the school’s Foundation Stage area but a typical break time for Key Stage 1 and 2 children, with all ages playing and learning together at the school, which adopted the OPAL (Outdoor Play and Learning) Primary Programme almost three years ago.
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