All about Play Leaders and Peer Mediators

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‘Play Leaders’ on the playground

Play Leaders have been a crucial part of a happy lunchtime at All Saints for many years. The idea behind the role is to teach younger children how to cooperate and play in a fun and safe way while giving Year 6 a responsibility.

The new crop of Year 6 pupils have undertaken their training to develop the skills required to be a Play Leader.

Their responsibilities include choosing the games to be played that day, gathering all the equipment together and modelling how to play the game fairly and safe. Running the games is the toughest part of the role. Just imagine trying to get a large group of young children to listen to the rules of a game when they’re focused on who was first in the line. Now you may have an idea how challenging their role can be!

Play Leaders not only helps the younger children develop their social skills but also teaches our Year 6 children many life skills such as; the importance of perseverance and leadership.

What games do the Play Leaders lead?

It all depends. They can set up a big group skip or hop scotch game, maybe run a team circle game like ‘Duck, Duck, Goose’, ‘Swim, fishy, swim’ or set up a challenge for you with the equipment. The ideas are endless!

What if I don’t have anyone to play with?

That’s exactly why we have Play Leaders- to help with those days when it feels like there’s no one to play with. The group games are for everyone to join in. Some games might have a maximum amount of players for safety reasons but don’t let that put you off- just find the other Play Leader and suggest a game.

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Peer Mediators

‘Conflict resolution for young people by young people’

Year 5 recently completed their Peer Mediation training- a programme of conflict resolution skills training, led by the Young Peacemakers Project. This follows on from the Peacemakers Project in Year 4.

During the training, Year 5 practiced the skills to help younger children resolve their own disputes- this is done through a 5-step mediation process. This equips our children with the awareness and skills to manage conflicts with others. The skills learned not only help the children who are chosen to be Peer Mediators but all Year 5 and the All Saints community.

Some of the qualities we have been looking for from our potential mediators are good listening, someone who is calm and respectful, a great team worker, someone who doesn’t take sides or gossip and someone who can solve problems.

If you would like to know more and see Peer Mediation in practice then please go to the two links below for videos made by the Young Peacemakers Project/ Crest who lead the training at All Saints. https://youtu.be/_MCXWDgcajI https://www.cresst.org.uk/young-peacemakers-project/

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Peer Mediators