Safer Playgrounds: Assessing Layout, Supervision, and Staff Training.

Recess can provide valuable learning opportunities. Taking short breaks during the entire school day generally seems to help some children be aware inside the classroom (Pellegrini and Bjorklund, 1996). And play can be a powerful predictor of children’s competence (Pellegrini, 1995). Experience for the wooden playground equipment may promote social competence by providing students the possiblility to practice innovative skills, negotiate and problem-solve, and interact with many other children (Leff, Power, Costigan, and Manz, 2003).

However, there are numerous benefits, playgrounds could also pose risks on the emotional and physical well-being of babies (U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, 1997). Most injuries in elementary school occur on the playground (Bruya and Wood, 1998). Moreover, some children find recess unsafe and frightening (Astor, Meyer, and Pitner, 2001), perhaps because bullying and also other kinds of aggression often occur to the playground (Craig, Pepler, and Atlas, 2000; Olweus, 1993). When playground aggression goes unchecked, students may discover fighting, name-calling, excluding others, and various antisocial behaviors “work.”

You will need to measure the structure and operations of playgrounds as well as their supervision regularly. It is additionally good for evaluate systems of staff communication and follow-through connected with playground incidents. Finally, it is beneficial to consider how playgrounds can support a school’s broader goals for student behavior and a safe learning environment.

The Physical Environment
Evaluating the physical environment of playground areas is a crucial step up improving school safety. First, conduct a visual survey on the playground to evaluate the extent to which these common hazards can be found:

Gaps inside the fence around the playground.
Access points with the play area directly to a street.
Low-hanging branches or shrubs that prevent or limit adults’ capability to see children, especially within the edges on the playground.
Debris for the playground, for instance broken glass.
Barriers to pay off line-of-sight supervision, just like concrete walls, other school buildings, or trees.
Large, unsupervised play areas, for instance fields.
Dangerous play equipment or ground surfacing material (See Handbook for Public Playground Safety placed in references for detailed guidelines).
Playground Supervision
Quality of adult supervision is crucial to developing and also an excellent playground. Yet providing high-quality supervision on playgrounds is one of the hardest challenges facing schools (Thompson, 1991). Common supervision-related problems located on playgrounds include:

Shortage of adult line-of-sight or hearing-range supervision for giant elements of the playground.
Deficit of adequate adult supervision when playground transitions occur (one example is, when students align to return right into a building).
Adults neglecting to circulate throughout all aspects in the playground and its perimeter.
Deficit of adult intervention when children behave aggressively.
Lack of follow-through on reports of playground aggression and bullying.
Limited communication or coordination between recess supervisors along with school staff about children’s behavior at recess.
Typically, improving supervision takes resources, but you'll find low- and no-cost methods to make existing supervision around the playground more potent. To produce high-quality playground supervision, you should consider a number of things.

1. Ratios of adults to children.

Limit the entire number and a long time of kids for the playground at the same time. Maintain an acceptable adult-to-student supervision ratio from the time that youngsters are about the playground to when teachers “take over” their classes following recess. Some resources recommend at the very least the exact same ratio as in the classroom (for instance, Bruya and Wood, 1998). 

When your playground has high rates of problem behavior or environmental barriers to supervision (such as high walls), boost the amount of adults circulating in the troublesome areas. 

Gentle there are enough adults supervising large, open spaces including fields. If this describes problematic, only permit field use when enough adults might be there to circulate and/or organize field activities. 

2. Practicing playground monitors.

Please take a proactive way of supervision by supplying ongoing working out for monitors and enabling these phones meet on a regular basis. Specifically, provide lessons in “active supervision.” This can include circulating continuously using an assigned area, praising positive behavior, and helping children problem solve. 

Assign monitors to flow through identified zones in the playground. 

Train monitors to manage physical fights and also other dangerous playground situations. Most school districts possess a policy regarding hands-on control over students that balances schools’ responsibility equally for student and staff safety. All monitors should receive training and support to take care of these situations. 

3. Routines and communication for playground supervisors

Give a technique of communication (including hand-held radios) so monitors can coordinate supervision and necessitate additional support as needed. 

Build a specific routine for transition times to ensure continuous supervision of scholars. Provide clear-cut guidelines for behavior through these times (for example, assign areas of the to line up by class). 

Implement a schoolwide system to handle, tracking, and communicating about playground problems and disciplinary infractions. Train monitors make use of this system, and often solicit their input and feedback on its usefulness.