The National Curriculum may determine what goes on in the classroom, but in the playground, schoolchildren rule.

What went on in your playground? Did you sing rhymes, play skipping games, have special words or pinch and punch for the first of the month?

We’d love to hear from you if you have any memories or experiences to share about things you learned from other children, as opposed to from your teachers, and we’ve devised a questionnaire to help spark your memory. It can either be filled out online or printed and posted to us.

We want to find out exactly what is going on in our nation’s playgrounds and how this has changed – or not – over the past 100 or so years. Our discoveries will form the basis of a major new book, The Lore of the Playground, which will be available in 2009. It will be followed by a series of other publications and broadcasts, and eventually the material will be placed in a public archive.

If you don’t want to fill in a questionnaire, but still want to share your memories on this subject, you can write or email us at the addresses in the Contact Us section. If you decide to take this route, please remember to include your basic information

If you’re a parent or a teacher and would like to get your children or pupils involved in the survey, you can also download a version of questionnaire tailored to children.

Questionnaire

Children’s questionnaire [pdf 450kb]

Contact us