Play Strategy: Play Out of Hours!

The toolkit

Who’s it for?
The Use of School Grounds for playing out of teaching hours toolkit has been designed to help head teachers, parent councils and local organisations to work together to consider making school grounds available to local children out of teaching hours.

Why has it been developed?
This toolkit was originally produced by Play Wales, the national charity for children’s play in Wales. It has been adapted, with their kind permission, to suit the Scottish context and legislative background.
It has been developed to support those who may be less than confident about offering this kind of provision and it is hoped to dispel some worries and offer a starting point.
This toolkit is intended to support the implementation of local guidance regarding the use of school grounds for community use.

How has it been developed?
In 2013, Play Wales produced the Use of School Grounds for playing out of teaching hours toolkit which was funded by the Welsh government. It was produced after extensive consultation, focus group work, and case study gathering from a range of schools across Wales that successfully open their grounds
for playing.
In 2014 Grounds for Learning was asked to submit a proposal to address the Play Strategy for Scotland’s action plan, action 7.5, the aim of which was to ensure that opportunities for outdoor free play are easily accessible in the community and that school grounds are valued places for play in the local community. We applied to Play Wales to allow us to adapt the toolkit to suit the Scottish context. Grounds for Learning has adapted the concept for the Scottish audience in conjunction with the Play Strategy for Scotland implementation group. It has been funded by the Scottish Government.

How do I use it?
This toolkit is divided into two parts:

Part 1. Issues to be considered – focuses on providing the rationale for the opening of school grounds. It identifies the benefits and addresses some concerns. This section includes case studies from across Scotland.

Part 2. Tools to assist – provides a range of tools to
assist the process such as options analysis, school
play policies and community agreements.