What is a Play Leader?
Play Leaders are a group caring children who have been trained to organise activities for other children on the playground. They encourage children to join in games and to extend their friendships. The leadership skills that they have been taught will also help to raise self-esteem, self -confidence and encourage physical activity.
A Play Leader should aim to have the following qualities:
- To be a great role model
- Be Kind
- Be able to help other children
- Abide by rules
- Respect equipment
- Be honest, reliable and trustworthy
- To be a good team member
Aims of Play Leaders:
- To improve behaviour on the playground
- To provide a safe area for children to practise their social skills
- To develop friendships between pupils
- To encourage problem solving
- To teach pupils appropriate skills and games
- To be a good role model for their peers
We are extremely lucky to have excellent Play Leaders at South Witham Academy. They carry out a very important role and help to ensure the children enjoy a happy and productive lunchtime.
Our Play Leaders are Year 5 and 6 pupils who have undertaken training which has helped them to develop their leadership skills. They all recognise the importance of being organised, planning the sessions well, knowing the games they want to organise with the children and making sure the equipment is sorted before the start of the session. The Play Leaders come up with lots of different ideas for activities to deliver during playtime and lunchtime and these help to keep KS1 children active.
Recent studies have noted that the time pupils spend in the playground is approximately 20% of their school day. The Play Leader programme helps pupils to utilise this time in a positive way. By running a Play Leader programme, we have noticed the following benefits:
- Pupils develop leadership skills such as organisation, communication, cooperation and a sense of responsibility
- Older children are provided with an opportunity to work with younger children, thereby promoting integration and social inclusion and citizenship
- Pupils return to lessons with increased concentration and this helps to raise achievement across the whole school
- Increased activity at playtime encourages pupils to adopt a healthy lifestyle and helps to reduce the problems associated with obesity.
Meet Our Play Leaders