Are your playgrounds well-supervised?

[BarefootDancer]

How much supervision do your children get in the playground and how do the supervisors deal with incidents? What happens if your dc gets hit and supervisor/teacher is down the other end? Do you tell them to go tell the teacher? I know it is a jungle out there, but just wondering what is usual.

its a bit of a grudgebear of mine tbh. The amount of incidents in the playground are so high my children honestly feel that if they report any incident to the teacher it will be completely ignored.

Yes, they sould tell someone if they are hit.

go and play somewhere else is the normal response, whcih doesn't adress the situation in anyway.

School should have a policy of what to do if a child is hit. It may not be possible to deal with it there and hten but it should be dealt with.

You need to ask them about their policy. That's just not good enoguh.

I think sometimes though if i am completely honest that the lunchtime supervisors don't enforce the policy.

Yes, that is an issue with lunch time staff not supervising and chatting. It should be raised though with the teacher still so that it can then be raised with the supervisors.

recently my dd's friend fell over in the playground, was cut all down one side of her body, was screaming. No teacher came to her aide, at all, she had to pick herself up and take herself indoors. When the parent reported it, they got oput a sheet of paper with names of teachers who were in the playground, doesn't change the outcome though and my friend felt like she was made to look stupid.

Mums who are fortunate enough to bring their children home for lunch often report the horrendous goings on in the playground back to the rest of us, it really is quite worrying. Until recently, the school field could be accessed through the open car park, only when it was highlighted by ofsted did the school do anything about it, despite loads of complaints from parents.

sounds like there are bigger issues there that need addressing. Can you not get together with other parents and put something in writing to governors?

Yes - I think our playground is undersupervised. The staff are fine, just not enough of them. Incidents happen all the time, and I think the less robust children don't always feel safe.

thats not a bad idea, the problem is a lot of the incidents are hear say, that said it is definantely worth considering as playground supervision is widely discussed at the school gates.

Saadly there isnt enough money to supervise adequately. It may be worth asking where staff are positioned so that you know they're not just chatting but actually supervising.

If they have a policy to keep the children safe in the playground and they are not providing enough staff to do that, can we force them to spend more somehow?

I think a lot of play fighting goes on in the playground.

How old is your dc?

I do think learning to deal with the playground is one of the biggest lessons they learn in reception!

The money comes from the shcool budget so therefore would have an affect on other spending.

I totally agree about play fighting but a lot of real fighting goes onto.

yes, it does at ours too. I think a lot of the girls run to the teachers and the boys just get on with it from what I've seen.

So it is a choice - education or safety?

Ideally the staff that should bethere should be dealing with incidnets effectively.

Our primary school playground is not supervised at all.

I did ask the Head about it but i's not a requirement if there are less than 50 pupils apparently

There are only a dozen pupils in the whole school and I understand that as it is a single teacher school there just isn't anybody to do it, but it does concern me sometimes.

how many adults and how many children are you talking about Barefoot?

my dd in Yr1 knows exactly which staff are capable of dealing with incidents. She'll say things like

'yes, XXX sat us down and sorted us out mum' or

'no, she never sorts it out - just tells us to go and do something else'

That's where staff let themselves down. You get far mroe respect from kids if you deal appropriately with incidences than avoid doing so.

Not sure. I think 1 adult to 60 children. Is that legal?