Taking pupils seriously

INTRODUCTION Breaktime in schools has until recently been largely neglected. In the book Playtime in the Primary School: Problems and Improvements (Blatchford, 1989) I argued that playtime was largely taken for granted by everyone in schools, and that it could lay claim to being the forgotten part of the school day. The book was written because there seemed such an enormous gap between the recognition by school staff of the importance of playtime and the lack of any research or policy on breaktime. More recently there have been signs of a growing interest in breaktime in schools and initiatives to improve it. In response to this I co-edited with Sonia Sharp a book (Blatchford and Sharp, 1994) which brought together authors to discuss, firstly, pupils' behaviour at breaktime (Peter Smith on what pupils learn from playtime, Michael Boulton on playful and aggressive fighting, Elinor Kelly on racism and sexism; I contributed a review of research on breaktime behaviour) and, secondly, recent initiatives designed to improve breaktimes. These included chapters on the power and use of school grounds (Bill Lucas, and Lyndal Sheat and Anne Beer), the role and training of lunchtime supervisors (Sonia Sharp and Gil Fell), the involvement of pupils in decisions in school and conflict resolution (Helen Cowie), and whole school approaches to playground changes (Carol Ross and Amanda Ryan). In addition there is a chapter from the head and deputy head of the Coombes County Infant and Nursery School, which has pioneered imaginative and fundamental uses of school grounds for over 20 years.