please can you share how your school introduces your reception class to the lunchtime playground

[ByThePowerOfGreyskull]

we are having a few issues at school and would welcome stories of good ideas we could encourage the school to introduce rather than just moaning about the current system.

Infants school (so YR to Y2). Reception children have their own separate area which is gated off from main playground. At the start of the year YR children have to stay in Reception playground, and Y1/2 children out of Reception playground.

As year progresses Reception children are allowed to go into main playground if they want to (Y1/Y2 still not allowed in Reception playground). 2 playleaders are chosen from Y2 children (they take it in turns) - they are allowed in both playgrounds and are encouraged to e.g. help children who are looking lonely.

As year progresses still more all children are allowed everywhere. Still have 2 playleaders every day.

Our reception children have a year 6 buddy. They eat together for the first 2 weeks. Then the big ones keep an eye out for them (just seen this in action yesterday 8 weeks after they started!)

But, reception and yrs 1-2 have a separate playground. Fenced off but gate kept open. All children can mingle in a certain area, but the little ones have to keep out of the 'big' playground until afternoon playtime when it's just them.

Ours have a separate play time and lunch time on the first day and then are in with the whole school on day two. All the children can go anywhere in the grounds and on any of the equipment.

We have 'peacemakers' who are year fours I think and they wear those illuminous yellow jackets and they are supposed to be able to help sort out any disagreements using 'restorative justice'. Obviously there is a teacher out there too!

It seems to really work, having all of the school out together. The younger ones get used to the huge year sixes rather than thinking that they need to be protected from them.

We have an infants playground and a junior playground beyond that everyone from rising three (nursery accepts term turn 3) to the end of year 2 turned out together. 4 Staff supervising around 30 children.
From year 3 at lunchtime they are are turned out with the senior school and I literally do mean turned out waterproofs and wellies on down the big field climbing trees - one of the reasons I love the school.

Gradually over the first weeks the R children are taken out to the main playground for lunch play (there is an enclosed courtyard R playground too, which they use for outside activities during the day as it has a roof).

There are some massive pencil statues one third of the way across the playground, and Recetpion children are not allowed to go beyond the yellow pencil - means that they are kind of contained within a smaller area, where the play equipment is, and that older children going into the area know to take extra care. There's a separate ball pen (like an enclosed tennis court) for football, and so generally children near where the R children are, aren't haring around too frantically.

By about 3 or 4 weeks in, they're happily settled in the big playground. There are shelters and also rainbow signs for them to stand by if they need a friend or some help. And about 3 playground supervisors and a teacher.

Ours has a little penned off area for Reception. Those who feel brave enough or have older siblings can go straight into the one big playground.

Reception have a small playground shared with Nursery.

Once the childre graduate to the Big Playground they are given a buddy from Yr 5, who has the job of showing them around and being their friend for a week or so. The Yr 5s LOVE this, and are very proud of their Yr 1s.

There is a 'In It To Win It' system for children of all ages - playground supervisors hand out little slips which say 'caught keeping the rules', and children who get one write their name on the back and put it in a box in the classroom. Each week the Head visits each class and draws a name out of the box, with a prize given to the winner. They are handed out very liberally, whenever children are playing nicely, observing rules etc.

Football is very carefully managed. Each class has a designated area in the fenced football courts, and footie can only be played on that area. Each week every class chooses two football captains (this is not done on merit - everyone who wants to play gets a turn) and for that week the captains choose the teams from everyone who wants to play.

There is a Time Out Spot for those who fight, iinsult or break rules.

Our reception and year 1 children have there own play ground. Which we fill with loads of things to play with. We have buddies on the yard with them to, also we have a reward chart for children who share and listen to rules and try very hard with there lunch.
We do lunchtime stars which is where they get a certificate in front of the whole school. Once the children go up to year 2 they are allowed on the big yard.

Not sure of the exact system, but they have a separate area which they stay in at first, then when they first get allowed out into the big area they all have little hi-vis jackets on. I remember DD moaning that it took ages before they were allowed on the big playground last year but I was at school one lunchtime very early this term (first full week) and they were all there mainly down at one end together with an adult supervisor. It might be just the youngest ones that stay out for longer, at the point when I was there it was only the pre-Christmas birthday group that was staying for lunch.

Ours go out into the main playground from day one for playtimes and lunch play. We are a small rural school though, with a couple of playgrounds and lots of space. A large majority of the children have elder siblings/relatives at the school and they love to see them and play with them during these times. A member of the reception staff tends to be on duty every day at playtimes, and there is a playleader for lunchtimes to keep an eye on them.

We have a very small school. All reception children have a year 6 buddy and for the first two weeks they have lunch together. We also have a play leader system whereby year 6 children organise games for those KS1 children who wish to join in. We have two separate sittings for lunch so generally speaking there's only one key stage in the playground for most of lunchtime.

Other than that, they're all in together and reception can more than hold their own!

thanks all, we have a lovely school, the only hiccup seems to be the lack of nurturing of reception at lunchtimes for this first term.
they had a week in the small playground then they were out with the other KS1 children, no buddy system.

What we would like to suggest to the teacher is that she has a session with the children to talk about lunchtime. To show pictures of the lunchtime assistants, what their names are etc, also to explain to them about the friendship bench system. I found out today that they have year 6 children in the KS1 playground each day to play with the littlies but it would appear that the reception children do not know about this and they are wandering round like a rabbit in the headlights.

If it was one child I would think there is a possibility of a nervous child but it appears that there are 6 ish children out of 20 who are very concerned about playing out at lunchtime.

Do you think I am being pushy to try to force the teacher to make some changes?

In our school, reception eat their lunch while year ones/twos play, and then they swap over, the only day they all eat and play the same times is for Christmas dinner.

Our reception children have a lunchtime Key worker supervisor who is with them all through lunchtime

I don't think you should think of it as trying to "force the teacher to make some changes" - you can make suggestions, but they don't HAVE to follow them..... I would have thought they had experience of this sort of thing. Just let them know that you think there is a problem with xyz and could they try a different strategy.

In our school, there's a separate gated area for the Reception children, with lots more toys. Bigger kids from years 1-6 who have volunteered to do so come into the Reception area to play with the little ones but the Reception children don't go out to the big playground at first. The Nursery children have an entirely different and separate area to play in. There are also separate playgrounds for the Infants and Juniors - the Juniors playground is next to the Reception one and there seems to be a fair bit of social interchange with bigger kids talking to the little ones over the fence. The Reception children also have different older children sitting with them at lunch time each day, as well as the same grown up dinner lady. They know they can ask for help opening things or about social issues from any of these people. Over the last week or so, the Reception children have had a couple of playtimes each week in the Infants playground. It has worked really well for my very nervous and shy child who now goes into school happily waving at her 'big friends' - when they played with the Infants, she came home full of the excellent game of schools they'd had! Obviously children are all mad and the idea of playing schools at school is totally bonkers but the important thing is that she's very happy with it. I'm also really impressed by the numbers of older children who wave at my daughter in the mornings and say hello to her. It's lovely that the whole school seems to really be part of one community. Things were definitely not like that when I was in Reception!