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The school grounds are the first thing that students, staff and visitors see on their arrival at school. Negative — or positive — perceptions continue to influence how students feel about their school, affecting attitudes and behaviour. School grounds projects are an effective way of creating a greater sense of community and ownership. |
Better school grounds have been shown to improve student attitudes and motivation: It makes you look forward to school more. Instead of thinking "Oh school", you think “Yeah, at break I can do this". (secondary student)
Well designed and managed school grounds can make break times a valuable educational experience, by encouraging social, emotional and physical development through play and other opportunities. Breaktime behaviour improves: one London student commented, It’s brought the school together as a community: now when you go out at break or lunch everyone from all years are either in the basketball courts or somewhere else and they’re all happy together. I think that there are less arguments and less fights. It’s like another way of saying “We are a community, let’s work together".
Students get a sense of satisfaction through having done something to help the school. A school council member at one school talked about how she had particularly enjoyed...getting the information from the students and then helping the school… so more people are not just sitting being bored, they have something to do.
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