Recess Play Promots Empathy, Combats Bullying

THOROLD — When she first started visiting Prince of Wales Public School at recess time, Erin Vaantaja noticed the students for the most part simply milled about.

“The kids were standing on the pavement,” said the Brock University education masters student. “They weren’t out in the field playing games.”

And then there were the kids that every school has: the ones standing alone with their backs to the wall, tormented by being an outsider.

During a visit to the school on May 25, it was a dramatically different scene.

The grass was a beehive of activity, with kids moving from station to station playing all manner of games, from bouncing along on large, rubber balls with handles to honing their hand-to-eye coordination with a game known as spike ball — kind of a combination of volleyball and foursquare.

The change was all part of a unique program at a growing number of schools in Niagara and Hamilton known as The Recess Project.