7 minute read
School Spotlight
Rachel Leckrone
Isn’t Recess Supposed to be Fun? Practical Solutions for Outdated Practices
While the kindergarten and first grade students at Bethalto East Primary School eagerly looked forward to recess each day, the paraprofessionals, school nurse, and building principal certainly did not. Even the teachers, who undoubtedly appreciated the planning time recess granted, grew to anticipate all of the problems which would soon cross the thresholds of their classrooms following the recess bell. Students were engaged in unsafe behaviors, battling with conflict resolution, and struggling with emotional regulation, consequently resulting in a revolving door to and from the nurse’s office. Paraprofessionals were feeling frustrated and defeated. Teachers were attempting to navigate recess issues with only limited information. And the principal was reviewing video footage from the playground, following up with students, and calling families to inform them of occurrences. Everyone recognized that a change needed to be made but what exactly needed to change was a source of debate, to say the least.
Throughout this article are the purposeful steps the staff at Bethalto East took to foster a sense of collective responsibility for improving safety on the playground through shared decision-making and solution-focused
dialogue, the subsequent impact on entrenched beliefs relating to traditional practices, along with the quantitative data results which succeeded the replacement of outdated strategies with current evidence-based approaches to problem solving.
Bethalto East Primary School, located in Bethalto Community Unit School District 8 and situated in the southern part of the state in Madison County, Illinois, is home to 410 preschool, kindergarten, and first grade students. Each day, students reap the physical and social-emotional benefits stemming from a cumulative daily total of 40 minutes of recess.
A longitudinal six-year study revealed that approximately 98,000 children visit the emergency room each year in the United States due to injuries that occur ages 5 to 9 may have the potential to be the most effective in terms of reducing accidents and injuries on the playground (Phelan, Khoury, Kalkwarf, Lanphear, 2021). Armed with similar information, the staff at Bethalto East recognized and accepted the responsibility of providing a safe learning environment but also noticed a growing number of playgroundrelated incidents. This resulted in a shared sense of urgency and a collective call to action.
According to data collected within the school’s student information system, the school nurse was treating an average of 90 students per week due to recess-related incidents. The principal, paraprofessionals, and school nurse gathered together to review the data and brainstorm potential solutions. The well-intended group quickly concluded
The well-intended group quickly concluded that additional staff at recess would alleviate all of the recess issues, only to find a few months later that, even after adding an additional three to four staff members to each recess, their data remained the same—no significant gains resulted from adding staff.
on the playground with the majority of injuries occurring at school. Conclusions were that school-based prevention efforts targeting student populations that additional staff at recess would alleviate all of the recess issues, only to find a few months later that, even after adding an additional three to four
staff members to each recess, their data remained the same—no significant gains resulted from adding staff. This led to additional discussion and collaboration in an attempt to determine a viable solution that would yield the results they were after. When engaging in collaborative problem solving, teams are often quick to determine additional staffing as the answer or solution to the problem; however, additional staffing alone without consideration to necessary professional development and changes to include more evidence-based practices may lead to bad results, which begs the question, why are we still doing that?
The team researched playground and recess supervision and safety practices and found targeted, research-based interventions, such as:
• supervision posts to ensure all areas of the playground were viewable by a staff member
• adequate amounts of equipment to help alleviate conflict, and
• intentional behavior-specific teaching strategies to establish and reinforce the necessary skills.
Articles and videos on playground safety and the primary causes of injuries were also reviewed by staff. Working collaboratively, sharing ideas, and learning together did not immediately make everyone into a believer, though, as several team members still disagreed on the direction that needed to be taken. Notwithstanding some healthy conflict amongst individuals, action steps were put into place under the pretense that everyone agreed to attempt the strategies discussed and the team would reconvene after at least four to six weeks of implementation.
Supervision zones were established, more recess equipment was purchased, students were provided with ongoing instruction on safe recess behavior, videos of staff modeling appropriate behavior were created and utilized, and staff participated in online professional development on playground supervision and safety. The results of their combined efforts for the 2021-2022 school year—which students have attended in-person in its entirety thus far—now show that Bethalto East is averaging only three recess-related visits to the nurse’s office a week!
When asked about the changes to recess supervision practices, Bethalto East school nurse, Sherri Verdun, stated
“Before we put anything into place and first started reviewing the data, it was shocking to see how many students were actually visiting my office during recess. I used to spend hours a day treating students
and then making those dreaded phone calls home to communicate incidents with parents. Now I see significantly fewer students, which is really great because it means fewer students are getting hurt.”
As noted throughout current research, the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the social-emotional learning needs of students, with school staff reporting an increase in behavioral concerns across academic settings at every level. Effective as of July 1, 2021, Illinois schools have also been tasked with providing 30 minutes of playtime for all kindergarten through 8th grade students. Illinois Public Act 102-
0357, coined “The Right to Play Every
Day Act,” also restricts schools from withholding recess or playtime as a form of discipline or punishment.
In light of the unfinished social-emotional learning resulting from the pandemic and in consideration of the amendment to school code, now more than ever school personnel are searching for proactive and restorative practices aimed at improvements in learning and behavior. When it comes to safe behavior on the playground, opportunities for growth certainly remain; however, what the staff at Bethalto East may have viewed as an insurmountable problem in the past, is now being analyzed from a more solution-focused lens as they work collaboratively to tackle this challenge through similar practices. Not only did recess safety improve, but potentially unbeknownst to anyone at Bethalto East at the time, so did the learning culture. The seemingly quick and easy solution of additional staffing may still be an idea that is tossed around, but it is important to note this practice alone is not likely to create results unless strategies are also adjusted accordingly.
References
Phelan, K. J., Khoury, J., Kalkwarf, H.
J., & Lanphear, B. P. (2001). Trends and patterns of playground injuries in United States children and adolescents. Ambulatory pediatrics : the official journal of the Ambulatory
Pediatric Association, 1(4), 227–233.
Racheal R. Leckrone is the principal and early childhood director at Bethalto East Primary School in Bethalto Community Unit School District 8. She has served in this capacity for the last four years. Prior to transitioning to her current role as a building administrator, Racheal worked with students having moderate to severe disabilities as a special education teacher. She holds a B.S. in elementary education, M.S. in special education, Ed.S. in administration, director of special education endorsement, and is currently completing an Ed.D. in curriculum design and instruction.
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