Play is critical to children’s well-being and development. All students should have access to and adequate time for positive play experiences every day. Learning and Connecting in School Playgrounds invites parents, teachers, principals and education administrators to take another look at their school playgrounds as spaces crucial to learning, well-being and development. This book combines research findings, commentary and the authors’ personal experiences and observations together with the views of teachers, principals, parents and students related to play and play spaces. Key content includes consideration of the role of adults in the school playground, the influence of technology on play, the challenges experienced by children transitioning to new school environments and consideration of strategies to support students’ access and participation in the playground. Cases are presented to illustrate the use of an audit tool to enhance school playgrounds. The future of school playgrounds is also considered through the reported hopes and dreams of adults and students and a range of recommendations are made for the review and development of schools’ outdoor play spaces. Learning and Connecting in School Playgrounds is written with a sense of urgency, calling for the recognition of positive play experiences as invaluable to children’s education. It includes important and challenging insights to inform and guide decision-making and will be an essential resource for all stakeholders who share responsibility for children’s participation and learning during school break-times.

Play is critical to children’s well-being and development. All students should have access to and adequate time for positive play experiences every day. Learning and Connecting in School Playgrounds invites parents, teachers, principals and education administrators to take another look at their school playgrounds as spaces crucial to learning, well-being and development. This book combines research findings, commentary and the authors’ personal experiences and observations together with the views of teachers, principals, parents and students related to play and play spaces. Key content includes consideration of the role of adults in the school playground, the influence of technology on play, the challenges experienced by children transitioning to new school environments and consideration of strategies to support students’ access and participation in the playground. Cases are presented to illustrate the use of an audit tool to enhance school playgrounds. The future of school playgrounds is also considered through the reported hopes and dreams of adults and students and a range of recommendations are made for the review and development of schools’ outdoor play spaces. Learning and Connecting in School Playgrounds is written with a sense of urgency, calling for the recognition of positive play experiences as invaluable to children’s education. It includes important and challenging insights to inform and guide decision-making and will be an essential resource for all stakeholders who share responsibility for children’s participation and learning during school break-times.

Why is play important in the lives of children? What crucial aspects of learning are being neglected in the current near-elimination of recess time in public schools? Playing for Keeps, co-authored by the well-known writer and educational leader Deborah Meier and two colleagues with equally long experience in schools, explores these questions. Based on close observations on a public school playground, the book shows children at play in a relatively natural, unstructured environment. The reader is virtually there, seeing, listening in, able to appreciate the children’s curiosity, humor, intelligence, and inventiveness. Readers will recognize the children’s voices and ways of thinking, and perhaps be reminded of their own childhood, their own children, or the children they teach. The authors comment on the observations, adding to the reader’s own perceptions . This lively, engaging book makes a strong case for the importance of free exploration, wonder, imagination, and play to the learning and growth of children. It should contribute significantly to the understanding of all those concerned, professionally or personally, with the welfare of our school-age population.

This book is a research guide for implementing contemporary playground strategies to promote active, healthy students. A number of school playground strategies have succeeded in reducing the decline in students’ activity levels by introducing equipment and policies that encourage further engagement. The book outlines these strategies and ideas and offers insights into their multiple levels of influence on engaging students in school playground activities that can promote student health. It also discusses previous investigations into the effect of playground strategies on students’ activities and the differences between structured and unstructured playground activities; investigations that have explored the translatability and feasibility of specific school playground strategies and potential recommendations for future school playground research. It also provides observations on the features students desire in their playgrounds and what features are important in terms of safe activities, enjoyment levels, which in turn offers suggestions for future research directions.

The articles in this book offer ideas that could be used to initiate a plan of action designed to change elementary school playgrounds. They provide a broad scope of information needed for adequately providing for the needs of children who play on school playgrounds. The following articles are presented: (1) "Child Development and Playgrounds" (J. Frost); (2) "Playground Design: A Scientific Approach" (L. Bowers); (3) "Playground Equipment: A Designer's Perspective" (J. Beckwith); (4) "Developing Responsibility of Children for Playground Safety" (P. Lowe); (5) "Teacher Commitment to Playground Safety" (L. Bruya); (6) "A System To Establish Playground Safety in the School" (E. Warrell); (7) "Project OLE': Outdoor Learning Environment for Children" (D. Sommerfeld and C. Dunn); (8)"Legeplads of Arhus: A 'Playspace' Concept from Denmark" (S. Green); (9) "New Concepts in Playstructures from the Commercial Sector" (J. Beckwith); and (10) "A System To Manage the Risk of Lawsuit" (L. Bruya and J. Beckwith). (JD)

As a teacher, what are a teacher's personal, social and emotional responsibilities in supporting pupils with diverse learning needs? There is no longer a place for a teacher who denies their role in the education of pupils with diverse needs. But understanding how to meet these challenges, particularly in amongst the other challenges of teaching and the classroom, can seem daunting. Drawing on examples from early years to college, this book looks at what inclusion and inclusive practice means in practice and how it relates to different aspects of teaching. Covering issues related to teacher well-being, resilience and other professional skills this book offers the reader the opportunity to use case studies and research to reflect on their own professional practice. Expertly crafted by Sue Soan, drawing on the expertise of a team of practitioners and academics, this book brings together the latest research and current practice. International case studies showcase examples of practice and reflexive questions encourage the reader to explore their experiences, knowledge and expectations to help them to develop as a practitioner.