ABSTRACT
Many schools, especially primary schools, have somewhat bleak, uninteresting and unvaried outdoor play areas. Since so much bullying occurs in the playground, improving the playground environment might be a useful positive intervention. Work of this kind was facilitated by a grant from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, provided to Peter Smith and to Anne Beer in the Department of Landscape at Sheffield University. This project was carried out jointly by the DFE Project Team in the Department of Psychology, and first Lyndal Sheat and then Catherine Higgins from the Department of Landscape. The project ran from October 1991 to September 1992. The funding enabled intensive work with four primary schools on the design of the playground environment, using plans developed by each school in collaboration with members of the Department of Landscape. The results are described further in Chapter Seven.
