3 Playtime supervisors

When on the playground, you've got to make sure they have a good play time and good lunch times. Because if they had a bad moment in the classroom, and they come out and they're in bad moods and they don't want to play, and you've got to get them to get over that and join in all the games. And some days you can spend quite a while just talking them around, oh, come on. Go on and play. Yeah, maybe you didn't do so well at your maths this morning, but that doesn't really matter. Because you're allowed to get things wrong. Look at your friends over there. They want you to play. Shall we go over and play with them? And you do, you coax them all the time. And then hopefully, they go back up to the classroom in a better mood. It's hard work at times, because you wonder if they will they're not strollops and they don't want to. They won't go back. But you can manipulate them a little bit do things you want to.

Carol and I actually make a very good team.

I'll have to agree there, I think.

There's lots of dinner ladies in the playground. But you always get two that, perhaps, think alike, which we do. We both feel the same about the children. We're both silly enough to get down and play with the children.

You've got to come to their level.

Yes.

You must come down to their level.

Definitely.

To make it all worthwhile, haven't you? You play the games with them. It doesn't matter if you make a fool of yourself. Because they don't care, the children don't care because you're joining in with them.

Sometimes it's important that you get in there and you play with them, so that the ones that aren't so up front will come along and ask and say, can I play? And you say, well of course you can! And once you let one in, they all start coming in then.

And it's good for the older children to learn to look after them a little.

Yeah, to respect them.

Yeah, yeah. And they know they have to be gentler with them. You, know they can't rush about, knocking them over. They've got to be more careful.

Keep it steady.

Leave it steady. That's it. You've got the idea. That's it. That's it. That's it.

We've got it. Pick up this end a little bit.

Down your end, quick!

The parachute game, I think that's a favourite one at lunchtime. That is the one they all love to be --

Yeah, they all-- we try to not get it too overcrowded.

But it doesn't work.

They just, yeah they just went mad today. They just all wanted to have a go on it. And I thought to myself, there's no way I'm going to have control over this today. I've lost this one. But, no. They were good. I mean, considering how many there was playing, they were good. Only one person under there today, because there's so many of us, it's going to get dangerous. So--

We're going to need to trust them all, though. We've got to understand that if you get them into trouble for something, tell them all that they can still come back to you, and that you won't, you know, hold it against them. You know, you could have a couple of boys fighting, and you send them in. Say, you've gotta go in for five minutes, you know, think about what you've done and come back outside. Come and see me and we'll sort it out. And they've got to know that you're not going to take sides, that you're going to hear both points of view.

We never label anybody naughty. We're always encouraging them. Of course, there were so many on the parachute, yeah. But it was--

I was watching you, I was watching you, love.

I think, it's good. When you work as a team, you watch out for one another.

Yeah, you do.

And I think the kids benefit more. Because obviously, you know, you usually have two to each thing.

I mean both of--

If you've got one playing, one sort of going around looking for the lonely child or--

Yeah.

--but we do, we try and get involved and look out and chat with them as well.

And then we decide what games we're going to bring out. And say, look we have this game today. There weren't too many playing with the hoops yesterday, let's try something new. And it's just ideas all the time.