This article was originally published on 24 September 2023
When my children pile out of school at the end of the day, the only information I can usually get out of them is about lunchtimes: what they ate, what they didn’t, what they played, who they played with and who got into trouble for various misdemeanours.
Any further probing about what they learned in a classroom is generally met with blank faces. This goes to show that lunchtimes are important to small people, as this is the main hour of the day that they can choose what they do and who they play with.
For those children who can make friends and engage in good quality independent play, lunchtimes are a welcome break from adult-led activities.
However, as a Sendco, many of the children I work with can find lunchtimes trickier, especially if they struggle with speech and language, social communication, or the lack of structure that playtimes bring.
When I first took on the role, lunchtimes would often be followed by an influx of alerts from our school’s management information system (MIS), with adults reporting incidents that were often linked to children struggling in some way with free play.
And when pupil voice was gathered by the school council, the overriding area that children wanted to see changes made to was lunchtimes.
So, we decided to divide the lunchtime space into zones, following an approach initially developed by education consultant Jenny Mosley, and which we adapted to suit our school.
What are playground zones?
The play space was split into different areas, which tied in with what we could practically provide, as well as what the children said they wanted. We worked with the lunchtime supervisors to organise the space into five zones: football, climbing, quiet zone, pupil activity leaders (Pals) and “craze of the week”.
Craze of the week is on a weekly rota and is always led by a staff member. A timetable goes out three times a year and we take ideas from children and staff. We have had lots of different crazes, with some being more popular than others. This term, we have skipping, clapping games, Makaton, “Bring a teddy”, trading cards and fidget toys on the schedule.
Football had long been a particular area of contention, with our budding Harry Kanes and Marcus Rashfords constantly falling out as we, unfortunately, couldn’t provide a qualified referee for the pseudo-World Cup Final games that were occurring each lunchtime.
To address this, our new football zone was established on a rota, with two classes per day and a member of staff overseeing it. This immediately had a positive impact on the field as we were able to contain football fever in a dedicated space.
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We use pupils to run zones where we can. The quiet zone is run on a rota by children from Year 4. They have a box filled with colouring, magazines and storybooks, and this space is well used each lunchtime under a big shady tree.
The quiet zone is a useful space to direct children to if they are feeling hot and bothered, or if they are feeling overwhelmed by the playground space.
The Year 6s, meanwhile, run the Pals zone, which is a rota of organised pupil-led games. This pupil-led focus means that the Year 6s are able to see themselves as play leaders, which has a positive impact on their morale and wellbeing.
Is playtime more inclusive?
So, how well is this new approach working? The zones have offered a structure to the playground and enabled us to focus staffing on key areas, where the play most needs leading.
The zones also mean that, by containing activities in certain areas, the rest of the lunchtime space is free for children to engage in free play if they would prefer. Before, games like football would spill over and take up lots more space, inhibiting the play of children who didn’t want to play football.
Staff also now have more options to support children who are finding play difficult. Children can be asked to leave a zone if they are not engaging appropriately or redirected to a different zone for a period of time if needed.
Alerts from the MIS have reduced, pupil voice is positive and the move to zones has enabled more children to experience positive lunchtimes, engage in play leading, and offer our most vulnerable children more structured play support if they need it.
I’d call that a resounding success.
Leyla Gambell is assistant headteacher and Sendco at a primary school and nursery setting in Kent
