What goes on playtime?

[PhoebeMcPeePee]

DS (8) is constantly having playtime 'anxiety' & I'm wondering if this is him not fitting in with normal school life or the school being quite rubbish wrt playtime. Main problem IMO is lack of activities & clubs - unless you do a paid for French/music lesson there's no alternative but to go out into the playground. Children are not allowed to take books or games (top trumps etc) out with them & trading cards (Pokemon/match attacks) have been banned as have loom bands presumably because of part issues. DS claims that the boys all play football bar one or 2 who are happy to play with the girls (he's not !) & there's nothing else to do so he's spending lunchtime either wondering around on his own or feeling he has to join in football. There also seem to be quite a number if low-level bullying instances (DS reporting to me not necessarily involved) with the leaders in the class taking charge of games, picking & choosing who can/can't play depending on who's in favour & who's not.

According to DS if you report anything to one of the lunchtime monitors (2 for school of 400) they tell you to "sort it out between yourselves". Fair enough they can't get involved in petty squabbles but how should this be handled (if at all!)

Is this typical esp for boys? What activities or facilities does your school provide (if any) during playtime & can anyone shed any light as to what a well run playtime should look like.

Eta DS has plenty of friends outside school but at playtime they all just play footie!

My son is in y3.

Football is on a rota with different years having a different slot so while he plays football it's once or twice a week tops.

My son and his friends seem to either play Tag or another variation of it or they play a make believe game like Star Wars. He also comes home with stories about how the lunchtime supervisors not understanding how annoying X is or how bossy Y is. It's petty stuff so I let him vent and we move on.

We have no bans on taking anything out or on any games. We have got playground equipment. All the children are allowed in all areas of the playground.

There are basketballs that you can use as there is a basketball net. I would like it if there were other things like skipping ropes, tennis balls for bouncing.

There is only one teacher on duty (550 in the school) and I don't think that is enough. There are also two year 5/6 "peacemakers" who have had a bit of training, for want if a better word, on how to deal with disputes.

Something I have done in a school where I was teaching where there were problems in the playground is teach the children some old fashioned playground games. Like "in and out the dusty bluebells".

Sounds like your DS's school could do with implementing a Play Leaders Programme, where KS2 children are trained to organise activities and games for other children.

Lots of schools do this (just google "primary play leaders" for examples).

We also have play leaders, though they mostly work with the infants. There are also a number of "buddies" who are supposed to look out for people who are not happy in the playground. (There used to be buddy benches where you could sit if you wanted someone to play with, but I think these were abandoned from lack of use.) There are also rotas for use of climbing frames, table tennis tables and table football. However, the situation you describe sounds pretty normal (trading cards and loom bands banned here too, though not Top Trumps I think). The vast majority of the boys (and some girls) play football, the few that don't play other running around games (numerous variations on It) with the more active girls and the rest of the girls play unicorns/skipping etc. The class leaders taking charge and bossing people around is certainly the norm for us too, though this wouldnt be considered as bullying at our school unless it were persistant and personal, thankfully DCs will either go and play with someone else or stand up for themselves. We do however have quite a large number of TAs on duty in the playground (420 split between infant and junior halves) who generally keep the peace. The majority of boys who were anti-football have long since given up and joined in.

sounds familiar but I have 2 girls.

no games to be taken in to school.

supervisors invariable say sort it out yourselves (and don't notice physical bullying taking place)

lots of children meandering around aimlessly (no grass, only concrete so plenty don't want to run around all the time because they tend to fall over and get hurt).

however they do give them access to hula hoops and things to play with quite a lot of the time.

I know mothers of boys have said the same about football and it is through this that a couple of real bullying 'gangs' have developed.

Seems rather harsh that so much is banned, the monitors sound rather lazy tbh and it might be worth addressing with the school. Ours seem to be playing a mixture of football and whatever the latest craze is. Currently loom bands, previously diablos and prior to that it was cats cradle. They also play things like British bulldog (don't ask me!) My two are both football obsessed but they do have friends that dislike football and they seem to spread their time between doing football and other things. Does he have friends home to tea? I would work on strengthening those friendships so maybe his friends will be willing to spend time with him doing other things as well as football, and maybe a bit of compromise.

Mine has also learned that lunchtime monitors are useless and save complaints for their class teacher if anything serious has happened.

I think the picking and choosing is pretty standard with 8 year olds, and is only really a worry if he NEVER gets chosen, in which case I would speak to the school.