School bans "unstructured play" during break times

[Kokeshi123]

www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-56568473

Hackney New School claims to have eliminated bullying by banning unstructured games (football---or even things like skipping) by kids during their breaktimes, replacing them instead with poetry recitals and chess clubs.

Apparently the kids are allowed to get some exercise.... during PE classes, but sports are "more structured" and supervised.

Anyone else think this is really bad? Kids need a lot of running-around time. The amount of weight gained by a lot of kids in lockdown should serve as a rebuke to those who think that kids will get enough exercise by being nagged to exercise by adults; they need to blow off steam and run about playing their own games. I also think it's very important for children's social and emotional development that they get to direct their own activities sometimes, without being constantly micromanaged by teachers or parents.

Having chess clubs and supervised activities as well as the regular playground activities would be completely fine--but why ban kids from playing their own games?

This happened in the middle schools I went to in the States - you selected an 'elective' for the semester and that's where you went for break. There were music options, art options, additional languages and other academic options, the sports and 'wellness' options, and the 'study skills' option when you wanted something as low-key as possible. I don't recall it being as bad as people think, especially compared to some of the shite than happened at elementary for me (where sometimes I thought the lunch supervisors viewed our fights like soap operas, might as well have had popcorn the way they watched us).

I do agree it's important for children to have free time to do things unstructured. I'm not sure school is a place that has to happen at secondary level where even when they do get free choice, it's often 'structured' by the space and the number of people and many places simple don't have the space for the kind of free play people are describing and too many students to do that safely.

I do question the 'almost eliminated bullying' by reports of bullying, it's possible that fewer people are reporting for other reasons, but I can see why it could help with the issue and I'm not entirely against it if children have free choice of what activities they do.

I can promise no secondary school child would skip during break time.
Football...yeah probably.
I would be very wary of their claim that they eliminated bullying, though. They've just moved it elsewhere or online.

If they have eliminated bullying then great, or even if they have greatly reduced it. I would take it with a pinch of salt though.

I actually think it’s a great idea.

I agree with a PP that those hating on this were those who breezed through school and were top of the popular pyramid.

I think that many people have missed the point that this is a secondary school.

I wouldn't mind my kids school introducing no phones at break/lunch time and insisting kids hang out in easy to monitor areas but not allowing kids to pick their break time is going to lead to more kids not returning refreshed after breaks which in turn affects learning.

What's wrong with unstructured breaks ? Not everyone wants to run around - so what if they want to have a natter or read instead?

Wrong. I hated school, never had any friends and floated around on my own most of the time. I still think it's a ridiculous idea. My dd hates school and everything about it but I've just asked her and she would hate organised activities even more. They need some self directed time.

Memorizing poetry sounds shit for most. Mine are dyslexic and if they wanted extra academic lessons, they'd pick completely different activities

memorising poetry by playing hopscotch would be more like it.

Stuff like this would have made me walk out of the school more often than what I did. It was bad enough sometimes listening to the teachers go on about irrelevent crap without it being forced during breaks. Hope the staff aren't being forced to run these and are actually getting their proper breaks. Ime, stuff like this eats into their time.

I went to several different schools, I had a break from the bullies in one school for around 8 months. A part of the bullying was because I was smart and I would have had to deal with more bullying because I could recite some poetry. Taking extra music would have resulted in more bullying as it did when some bastards found out I could play.

And other schools breaks were used as detentions. Nothing fun if you'd groped one of the girls. Playing hopscotch would and still does lead to inappropriate responses from others because tits moved.

I would have been more hopeful about the school if they had mentioned how they are targetting this type of behaviour considering it was rampant in the school back in 2019.

Another head's hair brained scheme that claims to have eliminated bullying from the school. Yeah right, just moved it elsewhere.

I wonder who is providing all this structured play time? That's right, teachers and support staff working through their breaks and lunch times most likely.

Hate to be a naysayer, but DP has been a secondary teacher for a long time and since the creation of academies and free schools there had been an explosion of heads who impose random rules based on little to no evidence and claim great success after very short timescales using qualitative judgements only. This is just a step up from the almost universal belief these days that strict uniform rules will somehow magically solve disciplinary issues.

DP once had a head teacher who actually implemented a system where kids who were struggling with subjects would sit GCSE exams early to "get them out of the way" so they could focus on other subjects - condemning them to a shitter grade. Yes, that's right a head teacher who thought that struggling students needed less teaching to be successful. It was a car crash and was reversed a few years later.

I work in an independent school and our kids have very little unstructured time over lunch. They have about 15/20 min max at a loose end after they eat and are in clubs or activities at all other times. It makes for an intense day but we don't have many playground issues to deal with at all.

Do they just wait till after school to beat the crap out of each other. As long as it is not on school grounds or during school time then the HT can say they don’t have any bullying.

I don’t think either of mine would have been over the moon about poetry reading as a break time activity.
Far better to have a strenuous activity to burn off their energy than sitting indoors.

They are likely to have done this because the children's social skills are in the main too poor to manage that long without direction and distraction. Planned lunchtimes are very much par for the course with children who have poor social skills and have been for years. It's just that now it is the majority of children who are affected rather than a minority.

It's also a good way of keeping eyes on everyone more of the time, which I think is a good thing in the light of the news this week about the culture of sexual abuse in schools.

Yet Ofsted praised the students for being polite, smart and all the rest despite the school failing their education immensly.

Sounds like a great idea. It would probably have reduced how much of the time at secondary school that I spent hiding in cupboards from the bullies. Breaks were hellish torment.

Sounds like a great idea... from those who were (sadly) social rejects in their youth.

DD is in sixth form, but I've asked her whether she would have liked these structured break times and she thought I was having a laugh. She didn't have masses of friends, didn't enjoyed break that much (wasn't bullied) but doesn't want to be forced into activities!

No school can eliminate bullying. Where I teach we try our best of course, but it is not possible. This is a temporary and confining solution.