What do children in
primary & secondary
schools think
about their playgrounds?
By Gwendolen Da Sousa Correa
Age 11
2011
Introduction
The reason I chose this question
I chose this question was because I am about to go to secondary school and what I had seen of the
school play ground at my secondary school looked really empty so trying to find out why I decided
was interesting and useful to me. I also wanted to find out whether the playground had anything to
do with the fact that bullying was (from rumours) a lot more common in secondary schools.
What other researchers have found out
Many researchers have researched the transition between primary and secondary but I could only
find one or two that had mentioned the playground. The first one (Galton, 2009) said some children
‘’take refuge’’ (p.5) in some club so this suggests that at the beginning of their first term children are
a little bit scared of the playground. Also in the late 1970s secondary schools provided year 7 with a
separate playground to keep them from the ‘’danger of mixing with the older peers ‘’ (p.6) and to
help make the change more gradual. Other research (Evangelou et al, 2008) claims that this is not
necessary because by the end of the first term 75 per cent have adjusted to their new surroundings.
Blatchford and Baines (2006) carried out a national survey of break times in primary and secondary
schools but they only involved years 5,8,10 so they didn’t say anything about transition from year 6
to 7 (primary to secondary school). The staff in primary generally look on play time as a time for
children to socialise and run around but secondary staff thought of it more as a time to refuel (eat
and drink) and give them a break. Staff and pupils agree that at break time the standard of
behaviour is poor but pupils also said that there was not much space or opportunity to take part in
fun activities. The difference of facilities in primary and secondary schools was obviously substantial.
It has also been acknowledged that secondary pupils are more inclined to say there’s not much to
do, fun activities are forbidden, there is not enough time to eat and drink and the grounds are in
great need of repair. Also over the past few years secondary school break time has got shorter so
cutting down the amount of time pupils have for physical exercise. I also looked at 6 other reports
about the transition between primary and secondary school but none of them talked about the play
ground as being important only the curriculum and one of them was even called ‘Playtime’s over’
(Spencer, 2005) although he didn’t mention the playground. I think he might mean children stop
needing playtime when they are at secondary school and need to become serious although if that
was true the world would be very boring.
Methodology
I used many methods. I sent questionnaires to year 6 classes in 4 different primary schools and year
7 classes in a secondary school. I also held a focus group with a small group of year 7 girls and
carried out an observation in one primary and one secondary school playground. I also took photos
of the 2 playgrounds. I chose years 6 and 7 because I was interested in the transition. My research
project took about 8 months to complete
The questionnaires
The questionnaires provided a lot of data. I piloted my questionnaires on some year 5s who had no
problems completing it so I made no changes. The questionnaire is in the appendix.
The focus group
I held a focus group of year 7 girls (I had asked a girl to get some friends who would be happy to
help and she only asked girls) in one of their houses. There were six children in the group. I had
written some statements about break times on large cards and asked the girls, one at a time, to
choose a statement for the group to talk about. I recorded the discussion on a Dictaphone.
These are the statements I used:









I have loads to do at break time
I prefer primary school break times
I don’t do the same things at break time as I used to do at primary break time
I prefer secondary break times
I don’t play games like tag in break times
I used to play games like tag at break times at primary school
I have nothing to do at break time
I do the same thing at break time now as I used to do in primary
I play games like tag at break times
I coded the information I got from the focus group and grouped the answers in categories. I was
unable to pilot the focus group because it would have been too difficult to arrange
Observation
I observed a secondary and a primary schools break time. From looking at each of the playgrounds,
you could see that there was much more activity in the primary school playground as everyone was
doing something active and in the secondary only one group of people were playing football and all
the rest were doing was talking, eating and walking.
Photos
I took photos in my school and the secondary school playground to have proof and to look back on
the differences between the two playgrounds
Ethics
Ethics are a one of the many hard things about research because although lots of people are willing
to take part they don’t want others to know what they look like, their name, school or town. If you
don’t promise to keep those things secret (although you don’t often know all those things) you don’t
have very many willing people to help you so you HAVE to promise to keep all information
confidential. After I had finished with the questionnaires I destroyed them. For ALL photos I looked
at them and edited out ANY hints of where a person was, who they were and what school they went
to as you can see on the photo below.
Before I could get people to help me I had to get their consent so on the questionnaires I asked the
teacher to tell the children they didn’t have to complete it and for the focus group I told them what I
was doing and why. I also promised to keep all information confidential and anonymous and none of
them said they didn’t want to take part.
Findings
Questionnaires
These graphs and tables were made from data on my questionnaires. When I had all the completed
questionnaires, I tallied the data for each question. I then made graphs and tables after I had
entered the data onto Excel.
Do you like your playground?
16
14
12
10
8
like
6
dislike
its ok
4
2
0
p1 girl p1 p2 girl p2
p3
p3
p4
p4
s1
s1
boy
boys girls boys girls boys girls boys
S1= the secondary school
p1=primary no. 1 p2= primary no.2
P4= primary no.4
p3= primary no. 3
What is in your school playground?
Equipment
wobbly log
tyres in a frame
hanging tyres
sport pitch
benches & picnic benches
climbing wall
tyres on the ground
basketball nets
netball nets
wooden play equipment
spinning platform
tight rope
painting on the floor
monkey bars
climbing frame
sensory garden
field
adventure playground
sand pit
tennis court
timber trail
S1= the secondary school
p1
p2
p3
p1=primary no. 1 p2= primary no.2
p4
s1
p3= primary no. 3
P4= primary no.4
The colours don’t mean anything, it’s so you can tell them apart.
What do you like\dislike about your playground?
P1 boys
Like
All weather pitch
Tyres
Everything
Number
6
1
1
Dislike
No monkey bars
No climbing frame
Gravel
Nothing
Everything
Number
1
1
1
1
1
No girls replied from this school
P2 girls
Like
Trees for hiding
Sport pitches\nets
The field
The amount of space
Number
1
3
2
4
Climbing wall
1
Millennium garden
1
Separate areas in the
playground
Equipment
Benches
1
Dislike
Too small
Trees
Not much to do
Footballers taking all
the room
Some places are out of
bonds
Really slippery in the
rain
Not allowed in and
around trees
Number
6
2
3
1
1
1
2
3
1
P2 boys
Like
Hiding places
Tree area
Number
2
1
Football pitch
4
Equipment
1
Lots of things to do
Climbing wall
The amount of space
Pond
1
1
2
2
Dislike
Too small
No equipment on
Friday
Not allowed on wood
pile
Places being out of
bounds
Stuff to trip up on
Number
3
1
1
3
1
P3 girls
Like
Fun
Lots to do
Painting on the floor
Big
Sport pitch
Field
Tyres on the ground
Bug bungalow
Astro turf
Number
1
1
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
Dislike
Small
Nothing to do
No climbing equipment
No swing
No slide
Number
2
3
1
1
1
P3 boys
Like
Sport pitch
Big
Field
Number
2
2
2
Tyres
Astro turf
Painting on floor
Timber trail
2
2
1
1
Dislike
Too small
Bug bungalow
Not much space to run
on Astro turf
Astro turf
Not allowed to run
Number
6
1
1
1
1
P4 girls
Like
Netball nets
Field
Lots of climbing stuff
Adventure playground
It’s big and you’re free
to do what you want
Football pitch
Number
1
5
1
3
5
1
Dislike
People getting hurt
It’s boring
Uneven
Old playground
Not allowed to eat
outside
No fun equipment
No swings
Gravel
Not allowed in the wild
area
New adventure
playground
Number
1
3
1
1
2
1
2
2
1
1
P4 boys
Like
Field
Number
6
Sport pitch
3
Big
Lots of equipment
Adventure playground
Climbing frame
Monkey bars
Sand pit
Safe
Sensory garden
5
1
3
1
1
2
1
1
Dislike
No nets in football
goals
Not allowed in wild
area
Everything
Football pitch
Short break times
No swings
No slide
No roundabout
No equipment
Dirty
Not allowed every
where
Number
1
1
2
1
1
1
1
1
2
1
1
S1 girls
Like
Big
Everything
Trees
Tennis court
Number
7
2
3
1
Grass
2
Dislike
Nothing to do
Not much greenery
Muddy field
Not enough space to
sit
Number
6
1
3
2
S1 boys
Like
Sport pitch
Big
Freedom
Number
2
7
2
Computers
Alleyways
1
1
Dislike
Not allowed to run
Crowded
Chewing gum on the
ground
Nothing to do
Most of it’s concrete
Muddy
Science block rules
Number
1
1
1
7
1
1
1
What you do in playtime?
35
30
25
p1
20
p2
15
p3
10
p4
5
s1
0
ball games running
games
S1= the secondary school
p4= primary no.4
hiding
games
stuff inside vocal stuff
p1=primary no. 1 p2= primary no.2
other
p3= primary no. 3
(vocal stuff = singing, talking, screaming etc)
Year 6 children in the 4 primary schools listed 56 different activities so I coded them by making a list
of all the activities and highlighting the ones which were ball games, running games, etc. by using
different colours. The secondary school children listed 12 activities. ‘Other’ was things like walking
and going mad.
Focus group
After I had held the focus group I typed up everything they said from my Dictaphone recording and
then printed it all out then I cut each thing they said so they were all on separate bits of paper. Then
I coded my data by looking at each strip and thinking of a heading. I then looked at the rest and if it
didn’t fit under any category I already had I made a new one.
Categories
What they used to do
What they do now
Nothing to do
What you are allowed to do in
secondary but not primary
Not enough time at secondary
How people treat you in the
playground
Preferring primary/secondary
What one gender does and the
other doesn’t
Wet play
Example
We always used to play football at primary school.
We’d do gymnastics outside in front of everyone.
Sometimes we play Chinese whispers.
All we do is sit eat and talk.
It’s not like we have nothing to do we just don’t do it.
I sometimes feel I have nothing to do.
We’re allowed inside at secondary which makes a lot of
differences.
You have a lot more freedom.
You only have 20 minutes at break time and 3 minutes is
getting to class anyway and lunch is 40 minutes and the last 5
is getting to class.
You can go the library but then people think you’re a geek.
At primary school we used to play ‘it’ and stuff but now you
can’t do that without people staring at you.
Actually it depends. Now I prefer this one (secondary) but
when I was younger I preferred the other (primary).
No, the thing is I like secondary school and primary school for
different reasons but I like primary school because you used to
have a lot more to do but in secondary school I like that you
are allowed to stay inside when it’s raining.
The boys play football.
No girls play football at (secondary school).
In our (primary) school we were only allowed wet play if it was
tipping it down.
There was an old teacher who would go. “Oh my god you must
go inside,” when it was drizzling.
Photos
A few of the photos are in this report. From them you can tell that there is a lot more equipment in
the primary school playground and the secondary school only has a sport pitch, muddy field and
concrete.
Discussion
In a way I have answered my question, ‘What do children in primary & secondary schools think
about their playgrounds?’ but more precisely I have answered another one. My question probably
should have been, ‘Is there a difference between primary and secondary school playgrounds and, if
so, what do children think about it?’ because instead of finding out just what they thought about it I
found out all about the differences and what they thought about them. Although I was interested in
the fact that bullying was apparently more common in secondary school this didn’t come up in any
of my research.
From looking at my results you can see that in primary school, all the children are much more active
and even the ones who spend their break times chatting move around a lot more even if they’re just
on a wobbly log or walking around. From my focus group, the interesting points were that they
would like to play games like tag but are too self-conscious. So it’s not that children don’t want to
play it’s that they’re worried about what others would think about them. One of the girls said “It’s
not like we have nothing to do we just don’t do it.” It’s probably because at one point someone said
they were too old to play and stopped others from playing and when others started playing they all
got stared at. Another student said that if you fall over, you got really, really embarrassed. This
implies that in primary school if a Year 6 falls over it’s just ignored but at secondary school if a Year 7
falls over, people will tease them.
Does my research agree with others? I didn’t find anybody saying they took refuge or that they were
scared in the playground but it might be that my research didn’t encourage them to admit that.
None of the statements I used in my focus group mentioned that sort of thing. Blatchford and Baines
(2006) didn’t look at Years 6 and 7. Although there was a good reason for this to do with the fact
that Year 6s and 7s have exams, they probably should have looked at those years but after they had
done their exams and were all relaxed because when you come up from nursery, teachers never
expect you to come up from just playing all the time to doing lessons most of the time so they make
lesson much more like playtime and the playground is not so different. But when children go from
Year 6 to 7 they go from having a playground with lots of equipment and lots of active stuff to do to
a big field with only space to play football and walk. My research agreed with many of the things
that Blatchford and Baines (2006) said, including that there’s not much to do, fun activities are
forbidden and there’s not enough time in breaks.
More research should be conducted on transition and playgrounds and it should involve many more
schools than I was able to do.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I think my research has been extremely successful, fun and interesting to me. I’ve
presented my research to the partnership of headteachers in my local area and to a governors’
meeting at my school. All of them said that the research was interesting and asked many questions
including the headteacher of the secondary school saying that girls never play tag but some boys
play tag up to Year 8. Providing more equipment in secondary school would encourage children to
be more active. The Government, doctors and many other people say this is important but there
would need to be some way to persuade all the secondary pupils to use it. There are heaps of other
questions which I could research to find out more about this, e.g. What would encourage secondary
school pupils to be more active in the playground?
If I could do my research again, I would probably try and do a more national research so that I can
find out if this is not just something significant to where I live and the same problems occur all over
the UK.
Bibliography
All the references I used in my research if you want to find out more. It was written by my adult
research assistant.
BLATCHFORD, P. and BAINES, E. (2006) ‘A follow up national survey of break times in primary and
secondary schools’ *online+. Available from:
http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/sites/default/files/Breaktimes_Final%20report_Blatchford.pdf
[Accessed 18 January 2011].
EVANGELOU, M., TAGGART, B., SYLVA, K., MELHUISH, E., SAMMONS, P., SIRAJ-BLATCHFORD, I.
(2008) ‘What Makes a Successful Transition from Primary to Secondary School?’, Effective Preschool, Primary and Secondary Education 3–14 Project (EPPSE 3–14) Research Report, DCSF-RR019.
Annersley, Notts: Department for Children, Schools and Families.
GALTON, M. (2009) ‘Moving to secondary school: initial encounters and their effects’, in Perspectives
on Education 2 (Primary–Secondary Transfer in Science): 5-21. [online]. Available from
www.wellcome.ac.uk/perspectives [Accessed 18 January 2011].
SPENCER, A. (2005) ‘Playtime’s over…’, Leader, Issue 5 [online]. Available from:
http://archive.leadermagazine.co.uk/article.php?id=161 [Accessed 18 January 2011].
Appendix
DO NOT PUT YOUR NAME ON THIS QUESTIONNAIRE
Hi my name’s Gwen and I am 11 years old & go to (name of my school). I am doing some
research on primary and secondary school play grounds. Please fill in this questionnaire. Do
not put your name on it. All information will be confidential
1. Are you a boy or a girl?
Boy
Girl
4. What do\don’t you like about your
school playground?
Please note
Like
2. What is in your school playground?
Please note
Dislike
Swings
Slide
Monkey bars
Climbing frame
Wobbly log
Tyres in a frame
5. Which year are you in (please tick)
Hanging tyres
6
7
Sport pitch
Other (please note)
6. What do you do in break times (please
note)?
3. Over all do you like your school
playground
Yes
No
Thank you