Whatever happens in the playground usually comes back into the classroom for good or for ill. Either pupils have had a happy time and feel refreshed for work, or there’s been friction and fallings-out, and they return edgy and tense, less able to concentrate on the task in hand.

This is where Claire Young and Phil Rumbles, both 25, believe they make a difference. For the past three years they’ve been employed to improve the quality of play at St Paul’s Church of England primary school in Newcastle upon Tyne’s deprived west end. Their role is to help children in their social relationships and so have an impact on behaviour in the classroom.

Out on the tarmac it’s like watching two pied pipers at work. Wherever they are, huddles of children gather, calling out to play this game or that.

Phil Rumbles, who took a sociology degree at Salford University and has worked as an auxiliary officer in prisons, says many St Paul’s children could not follow the basic rules of games. “I’ve tried to show that rules in the playground, whatever they are doing, football, skipping or ‘Simon says’, are there for their benefit. I’ve had to make them see that if you kick the ball past the line, that’s a throw-in, not something to argue about, because that keeps the game flowing. If the skipping rope’s on the go, it doesn’t do to all jump in at once - it’s better to wait your turn, then nobody will be left out.

“Before, the children were getting so frustrated with each other. Things were being taken away from them because they couldn’t play with them properly. Our job has been to establish a positive role model.”

St Paul’s is in a severely run-down pocket of Newcastle’s inner city which has been a black hole of unemployment and social deprivation since the shipyards fell silent. Drug-related crime is rife; West End police station is the busiest in the city and there have been shootings near the school. Between 65 and 75 per cent of the 260 children who attend St Paul’s are entitled to free school meals; one in four has special needs and a large proportion come from single-parent families. Ten years ago, when the area was in the spotlight as a scene of rioting by local youths, St Paul’s chair of governors - then the local vicar - and a parent who was a social worker asked parents about their experiences of living in the neighbourhood. They wanted to know how they believed the school could best help. As a result of that survey, a management group was formed and the St Paul’s School Community Project established.

Initially, a community development worker was employed to work with the school’s families, funded by the charity Barnardo’s. But the school considered that while such community work would bring about change in the long term, something with more immediate impact was also needed. It found money from the Church Urban Fund and a local business charity to pay a playworker for three years.

“The children needed a means of socialisation,” says headteacher Chris Constable. “Their lives are such, and they have to live so much on their wits, that when they play there is an intense desire to win at all costs.”

The Urban Fund extended funding for a further three years to employ two part-time playworkers - Phil Rumbles and Claire Young - for infants and juniors. Their presence has certainly been effective. Children are willing to settle to work and when conflict does arise they tend to understand how they should respond to it.

When St Paul’s was inspected last year, Ofsted praised the school for its ethos and ordered sense of routine. In 1997, only 30 per cent of children achieved level 4 in key stage 2 tests in English and science, with one in four achieving that level in maths. This year, 55 per cent of pupils achieved level 4 in English, 61 per cent in maths and 90 per cent in science. Chris Constable is in no doubt that the playworkers have contributed to such a notable improvement.

Phil Rumbles says their “main job” has been to lay down the rules of fair play, to show children how to play, not to fly off the handle. “And not many of them have males around in their lives. At first they kept calling me ‘Miss’.”

Claire Young appreciates the special relationship a playworker can have with children. “The children say stuff they wouldn’t say to a teacher. Once you are on the yard you are free to become their friend. As a teacher, when you are in there trying to get them through their SATs, you don’t see flashes of brilliance, the brilliance in their characters, that we sometimes see.”

Ms Young’s “school day” runs from 10am to 1.15pm. During that time, she works largely with infant children in the playground and as a classroom assistant between breaks. She also runs a netball club, a singing group and a forum for girls to get together to talk over difficulties.

Phil Rumbles arrives at midday and stays until 3.15pm, supporting juniors in the playground and in class. He has also run a guitar club and sessions in rugby, cricket, basketball and football. Although the Church Urban Fund cash ran out last month, and no parents have stepped in to run the management committee to find other funding sources, Ms Young is returning to St Paul’s to carry on her work voluntarily. “These kids have been so rejected in their lives, I didn’t want them to think that another person was walking out on them, and I don’t want them to lose the skills they have learned.”

Mr Rumbles, meanwhile, has started a primary PGCE course at Sunderland University. He says: “I will take the importance of play with me into teaching. If nothing else, my yard duties will be good.”