Active Playground Supervision

At Ashhurst School we are almost three times as likely to see issues or conflicts between students occur in the playground than in the classroom. During the 2020 school year, over 280 incidents occurred in the playground, compared to 100 incidents in the classroom.

It is very important that duty-staff at Ashhurst School follow the Active Supervision model as outlined. This will assist in reducing incidents in the playground or even better prevent them.

Overview

At Ashhurst School all staff members are rostered to a duty time and zone each term. Teachers are allocated to zone boundaries. These boundaries may change size depending on the number of issues that occur within the playground. Each duty teacher at Ashhurst School is provided with a pack including a walkie talkie (that must always be switched on), plasters, and a sterling clicker (to reward as much good behaviour as possible). At the end of your duty you must either send the pack to the next teacher on duty or physically hand it over to the teacher that you swap with. This hand-over is important to ensure another teacher is on duty directly after you. In the event of any major behaviour or accidents you will be able to use your walkie talkie to contact the office.

It is important that all staff are on time to duty. If you have a class issue, or parental issue, either tell them you will attend to it after you have completed the duty or ask the teacher beside you to cover your duty.

What does active supervision look like?

Move around

Staff should not be standing in one place. It is expected that teachers are continually moving while they are on duty. They should not follow the same pattern or direction e.g. walking around the track. Teachers should move around their duty area in an unpredictable line so children do not know when the duty teacher is coming past next. Teachers should also consider hot spots on the day and make passes through those areas more regularly

Look around

Staff should be scanning all areas near and distant. While scanning they should consider
Target both appropriate and inappropriate behaviours
Target known problem areas, activities, groups and individuals
Uses both visual and aural cues
Increases opportunities for positive contact with students and acknowledge those behaviours verbally, physically (a smile, thumbs up) or by clicking a sterling card

Interact with students effectively and efficiently

Greet students – be brief it should be short and only 5 to 10 seconds.
Positively reinforce students who are following the rules (be explicit: “That’s what I call being safe” etc)
Positively correct students who are breaking the rules (state the rule, give choices, then put it back on the student)
Involve groups of students wherever possible to increase the positive contacts
Look and sound genuine
Use positive greetings, however you should be non specific in content:
“Hi everyone!, it’s good to see you!”

Rather than

“Gidday guys, what are you making there?”