Do’s and don’ts: children’s experiences of the primary school playground

Abstract

The school curriculum addresses issues of structured environmental education; however, what informal opportunities are afforded to children at school to interact and expand their knowledge of the world around them? This small case study attempts to elucidate children’s experience of the school playground environment. The findings suggest that adults, with the best of intentions, attempt to create an orderly, safe, equitable, hospitable environment for children at playtime. However, often the children see these good intentions in a negative light. I argue that the management and regulation of playtime activities restricts the opportunities for children to expand their knowledge of their surroundings.

Acknowledgments

The author would particularly like to thank the reviewers of this article for their insightful and detailed feedback; it was supportive and very helpful.

Notes

1. One school I visited was situated near a number of oil refineries and as I arrived the alarms had gone off because there had been a leak. All the children were kept indoors until the ‘all clear’ siren had gone off. This could have led to a number of interesting debates about air pollution, which I know in this incident it did not.