Children's Pages - School Buddy System

Our school operates a school buddy system at lunchtimes and playtimes. We are a small and friendly school with a family environment and we encourage those family values by giving all children the opportunity to become a playground buddy when they reach the junior class. The benefits of the system so far have been:

• to encourage children to take responsibility
• to actively care for and look out for other children
• to try to ensure that all children are free from loneliness or isolation at playtimes and lunchtimes
• to encourage children to form a variety of friendships with both older and younger pupils
• to encourage participation in a variety of traditional and modern playtime games and activities
• to encourage high levels of self esteem and confidence in all our pupils as valued members of our school family

School buddies work in pairs each playtime and lunchtime. There is a rota in operation. Each buddy is identified by wearing two crossed coloured sports bands. They assist in many ways some of these are:

• helping children who have fallen over
• getting out and putting away playtime equipment
• sorting out playground disagreements fairly
• instigating suitable age appropriate games with younger children
• encouraging shy children to join in or simply keep them company
• alerting staff when there are problems
• giving out fruit at snack time
• setting a good example by caring for others