How can schools prevent playground injuries and accidents?

How can schools prevent playground injuries and accidents?

he best way to prevent playground injuries and accidents is to have clear guidelines for our students and our staff. Students should be given clear direction and guidelines on their behaviors, and what is acceptable during play and what is not. Then we back that up with good supervision of students, an intelligent supervision of students, for example, thinking about placement of our staff in relation to placement of children. We were doing some safety assessments in Montana at a school where they had more than five acres of playground equipment. The children were allowed to go anywhere in that five acres they wanted, which was too far distant from many of the personnel, and we suggested to them to pick each day a different area, and bring the children in a little bit more manageable space. They could still utilize the equipment over a period of time, but not all at one time. As we pointed out, there were children 200 yards from the nearest staff member. Too far in the event of an asthma attack or some type of injury, too far to tell if a child is bulling another child. So good rules and thoughtful application of good supervision.