1. Working in pairs,
the leadership
students eagerly
donned orange vests,
and took a stack of
gotchas out onto the
playground. “I like
doing this, it’s fun,”
said grade 6 student, Gracie.
At the end of each week, I had two
students tally the results, and House
Team points were awarded. These re-
sults were announced at our weekly
assembly, and a name was drawn to
receive a prize. (see data, next page).
Reflections
I asked some of the younger stu-
dents for their thoughts on our new
Playground Pals program. Here are a
few of their responses:
April 2012 • Adminfo • 11
T
his year, our
playground
is an ener-
getic, friendly place
to be so I am using
the techniques of
Appreciative Inquiry
and promoting stu-
dent leadership by looking into what
works on our playground. Our play-
ground has not always been such a
conflict-free space. A few years ago
the school counselor established a
Peer-Mediator program to help ease
tensions. It was abandoned after a
while and I can now see why. Peer
mediators were trained to look for
potential disputes, and as you tend
to get what you look for, playground
tensions increased.
Early in November I talked to my
senior students (Grades 6/7) to see
if anyone wanted to help figure out
what was going well. There were 21
volunteers, and I explained this pro-
cess to them:
• Week 1: hand out gotchas to
anyone we see behaving safely.
• Week 2: focus on students
who play cooperative games.
• Week 3: students who are
caught being kind will get a
gotcha, and
• Week 4: will have a focus on
fair play.
Playground Pals
A principal in Peace River South initiates a program to promote student
leadership by shifting the focus to good behaviour and fair play.
by Sylvia Bell
Play Pal reflection by Hailey, grade 3.
ShortCourse 2012 • UBC, July 9 – 13
Registration now open • www.bcpvpa.bc.ca

2. April 2012 • Adminfo • 12
“It’s like friendship falling down on
top of you,” Tradyn, grade 3
“I like getting the gotchas,” Dami-
an, grade 3
“I like that it’s helping people,” Bri-
an, grade 4
“It feels like someone is caring for
you, and I like it when I get a got-
cha,” Christina, grade 2.
“It’s like having an older leader but
with lots and lots and lots of good be-
haviour and respect” Sierra, grade 3.
I also discussed the structure of the
program with the volunteer students.
Initially, I had paired up the students,
and given two students a morning
recess, and a different two the lunch-
time. Students suggested that it would
be easier for them to remember their
time if they did both time slots in one
day. After implementing this change,
student volunteer numbers increased
to 19 from a dip to 16.
Limitations
While it’s tempting to compare
one cycle to another, the reality is
we cannot as there was not the same
number of inside days in both sets.
What the data does show is that co-
operative games were easy to identify,
and reward. Kindness was harder to
see from an outside perspective, and
so after the first cycle, and after talk-
ing with the volunteer students, we
decided to focus on good manners
thinking that would be easier to spot.
One other limitation was that by
the end of seven weeks cycles, my
numbers had dwindled to 16 stu-
dents, from the original 21. All of
the losses were boys, and when asked
why they no longer wanted to be a
Playground Pal, the typical response
was, “I just want to play with my
buddies.”
Conclusion
Overall, this program is successful,
and focuses on positive behaviour
while outside in a relatively unstruc-
tured environment. The students
who have continued to be part of the
volunteer corps are happy to have this
responsibility, and it engenders lead-
ership with them. On the few occa-
sions when there have been absences,
other volunteers have been eager to
step in for their missing peers. And,
of course, it is a boon to me, as play-
ground supervisor in these troubled
political times. I have extra eyes and
ears, all focusing on what works, who
is playing nice and being friendly.
You really do get what you look for.
Although we will continue to modify,
and look for ways to improve the pro-
gram, it is certainly a practice we will
be keeping when teachers are back
out on duty.
Bear Wolf Moose Eagle
Safety 16 13 11 13
Co-op games 24 20 29 16
Kindness* 08 00 05 00
Fair Play 11 11 10 12
Bear Wolf Moose Eagle
Safety 11 16 16 20
Co-op games 24 31 17 25
Kindness 08 10 10 06
Fair Play* 03 07 01 04
* Mostly an inside week
Sylvia Bell is the Principal of Windrem Elementary in Chetwynd. She is also a
doctoral student with the University of Calgary and can be reached at Sylvia_
Bell@sd59.bc.ca