A child who can’t or doesn’t play is not a well child. Sport England's Active Lives Survey reveals the one thing that children most want and value to be active, sociable and well is time and space to play.

There is a wealth of research evidence showing that children need plenty of time to be outside, active and freely playing to keep them feeling happy and healthy and yet many children only spend a few hours a week in outdoor play. Schools can do more to put this right than any other organisation as they have the time and space and the children.

Here are three reasons OPAL can help with wellbeing

• To be happy we all need parts of our lives we have control and agency over - play is all about children making choices and controlling their actions
• To be well children need exposure to sunlight and natural elements - OPAL increase school grounds use by around 85%
• To be sociable we need plenty of practice in lots of situations and to try out things that work and don’t work - that’s called play