Schoolyards Count!
Thank you for your assistance! We have finished collecting data. We expect our report to come out in winter 2019-20.
Check up on the health of your schoolyard
We are reaching out to schools across Ontario to help us understand how our schoolyards ‘measure up’. As members of Ontario school communities – through school councils, health and physical education classes, healthy-schools or eco-schools committees, even as individuals – we are asking you to take an hour to use a standardized ‘audit tool’ to assess the quality of your own schoolyard, and to answer some questions about how it is used and developed.
The data you collect can inform discussions about priorities and goals for your schoolyard.
Please, share your results with us. If you are using the online tool, your answers will save automatically when you enter them. If you are using a pdf printed from the web, you can send the completed tool and survey to the address at the end of the tool.
Your work as citizen scientists will help us create a comprehensive picture of schoolyard quality and use across Ontario.
By sharing it, you will fill in the picture on the overall state of Ontario’s schoolyards – what are their strengths and weaknesses? How are they changing? Are there big differences in schoolyard quality across Ontario? How often are students getting outside?
Schoolyards Count! is a partnership between Ophea and a researcher at Wilfrid Laurier University, funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.
SPEEDY Audit Tool and Survey Tool, Plus Resources to Get Started
- Schoolyards Count! Research Brief and SPEEDY Audit Tool and Survey (PDF)
- Schoolyards Count! SPEEDY Audit Tool and Survey (PDF)
- What does my class need to know before getting started? Schoolyards Count! Video
Follow us on social media...and don't forget to share moments from your schoolyard audit
Twitter: @SchoolyardCount
Facebook: /SchoolyardsCount
Instagram: @schoolyards count
Media Coverage
- Brantford Expositor: Study aims to improve schoolyards
- CBC Hamilton: Laurier researcher aims to improve quality of Ontario's schoolyards, asks students for help
- The Hamilton Spectator: Brantford researcher studying quality of Ontario schoolyards
- Toronto Star: Do Ontario schoolyards make the grade?
- CBC Toronto: Schoolyards Count - CBC Toronto Media Clip