Primary
Playground duty rota. Yard, hall and gate, named.
A playground duty rota is the break and lunch plan for a primary: who is on the yard, who is in the hall, who has the gate. Wet play moves half of those people inside. The person writing it is usually also the person who knows who is first-aid trained and who is already on a 1:1.
- Yard, hall and gate as separate posts, not one 'lunch' blob
- KS1 and KS2 sittings kept apart from staff breaks
- Wet play as a real alternative, written down before it rains
- A PDF for midday supervisors who will not log in to anything
What primaries actually roster
A one-form entry might have two adults on the yard, one in the hall and one on the gate, then a second sitting. Add a TA who cannot leave a pupil, and the 'spare' person disappears. That is why the sheet lives with someone who can see the whole morning, not in a folder of blank templates.
Wet play, first aid and the gate
If the rain plan is a verbal agreement, the first wet morning is a row in the corridor. Write the indoor posts on the same rota. Mark who holds the first-aid kit. The gate at 08:45 and the gate at 15:15 are different jobs, even when the same name does both.
When someone is off before the bell
The weekly pattern is the easy part. The hard part is 07:40, when a midday supervisor is at the hospital and a TA is sick. You need a daily copy, not a new spreadsheet. SchoolRota keeps the week, then lets you fill the empty post before anyone is on the yard. It will not book an agency for you.
Common questions
- Is playground duty only a primary thing?
- Primaries feel it most, because break and lunch are supervised by TAs and midday supervisors rather than a duty team of teachers on a period grid. Secondaries still roster break, lunch and gate. The posts are just different.
- Can lunch sittings stay separate?
- Yes. KS1 and KS2 sittings are posts in their own slots. They do not have to share a column with staff breaks.
- How long does this take in a small primary?
- In the worked example of 15 support staff, break, lunch, sickness, reprinting and sending the sheet come to at least 5 hours a week. See the primary case study for the split. Pay for that time is costed from the STPCD 2025/26, England outside London.
See also what a duty rota is, duty rota software, covering an absence and the 15-staff primary example.
Try it with your own school this term.
30 days free, no card, full product on your own data. Set the portal up when it suits you, publish your first day, and see what 07:40 feels like when cover is already proposed.