In search of peaceful playgrounds

Recess is often thought of as a time to escape from the classroom, from work and from the constant gaze of the teacher. It was a peaceful and joyous time when most children occupied themselves in active play and the odd incident was quickly resolved with the help of the teacher on 'yard duty'. Not so any more. The playground is now a 'problem' in many schools largely because of the bullying behaviour occurring there. This paper discusses the relative merits of the strategies schools are implementing in an effort to deal with the bullying behaviour and suggests that more thought might be given to improving the playground environment itself as a way of addressing the problems.