ABSTRACT
This chapter reports on an action research project from Wales, one of four nations in the UK. It has its own elected legislative assembly which sets educational policy that differs from other countries within the UK. Despite children’s right to play being embedded in statute, and general consensus that play has positive outcomes for children, evidence suggests that school grounds are under-utilised for this purpose in Wales. The chapter offers a snapshot of a project titled Open All Hours, which researched the utilisation of school grounds as a community asset for play, through piloting a toolkit designed to support democratic use of school grounds. The project was a partnership between Play Wales, Cardiff School of Education at Cardiff Metropolitan University (Education and Early Childhood Studies team) and Cardiff University’s School of Social Sciences. Staffed by three student volunteers (one at each school) and university academics, it involved interviews with key stakeholders.
