Transcript

I view the school day as being an extension of learning, or an opportunity to learn. So the playground is a big part of that. Because learning isn't just about what people call the three Rs and extra bits associated with that. It's about how to interact. It's how to be social. It's how to sort issues out and problems. It's about supporting each other. So, very often I've had children on the playground come to me and mentioned something that's been going on in the classroom because they wanted-- they weren't quite sure about that something. More often than not though, it's "it's not fair because he's not letting me play" or whatever. And my response, then, is not to charge into the situation, to solve the issues for the children, but to teach them how to discuss disagreements. Because that type of opportunity to learn is so important because it's a lifelong skill. When I'm on the playground, which is frequent, I observe children quite closely. Because what I'm looking for, fundamentally, is are the children happy? The flip side of that is who looks lonely? Who looks sad? Because that's the opportunity for me to gently stroll over and say, "Hi, how are you?" And if there is something that the child needs help with, then I'm there. It may be that they just want to be by themselves, as well. And it may be their personality that they don't look as happy as the other children. We're all different and we need to celebrate those differences.