In pictures: Playground games

Under a �20,000 initiative to increase children's activity levels, pupils will be encouraged to pick up a skipping rope or try other games at break times.

It is part of a plan to improve the delivery of physical education.

Education Minister Jane Davidson officially launched the scheme Meadow Lane primary school in Cardiff.

The school in the St Mellons' estate has been a trial centre for the project, called In the Zone.

Different areas of the playground are earmarked for activities, sometimes with physical markings such as for hopscotch, or are divided up among lunchtime supervisors offering the children a choice of games.

Activities which have been played in schools for generations, like long-rope skipping, elastics and clap-hand routines are played alongside more modern inventions such as a multi-coloured "parachute", which a group of children hold to throw and catch a ball, or run under.

The games have increased interaction between all the children

There is no doubting the enthusiasm of the pupils for the scheme - boys and girls alike take part in the activities, which can also include sports activities like football or rugby.

Equally enthusiastic are the school staff, whether teachers or lunchtime assistants, who report a significant change in the children's behaviour.

Head teacher Liz Counsell told the BBC Wales news website: "This has developed over the last 18 months as part of our involvement with PE Schools Sport (PESS).

"Our supervisors who are mostly parents from the estate have been trained to use all the equipment, and they bring it out at lunchtime."

Mrs Counsell said children nowadays were not used to playing games in the street because of the huge increase in traffic.

"They watch TV or play computer games at home. They need encouraging to play the games," she explained.

"We thought it would be important to lessen bad behaviour, develop social skills and the health side of it.

"They are more active, and they come in having run off lots of energy - and they've had fun."

'Not complicated'

In the playground, 10-year-old Richard and Tamara, nine, demonstrated the hand-clapping routine they had learned, and made their own embellishments to, since the project began.

So what do they think of their new playtime activities?

"We like playing these games because they're not complicated, they're really easy to learn," explained Richard.

For friends Kayleigh and Bethan - who like skipping and the inflatable hoppers the most - the lunch hour has dramatically improved.

"We used to just come out and talk before. Now we just can't wait for playtime - we push past each other to get out of the door."

The scheme has been devised by the assembly government's PE and school sports programme, which is managed by the Sports Council of Wales.

PE and school sports manager Allison Hanbury said: "By carving playgrounds into separate activity zones, we have seen behavioural changes and increased activity levels.

"The playground is safer, easier to manage and lunch breaks have become a constructive time for exercise and learning."