The Global Recess Alliance was founded in early April 2020 at the start of the global COVID-19 pandemic. We are a group of scholars, health, and education leaders who speak publicly about the essential nature of recess for all children through their school years, including high school. The pandemic underscored the need for children’s play. This applies to all young people in school, children and adolescents alike.
In response, we crafted a statement and created our website to help professionals and parents protect and deliver safe recess. As we enter the post-COVID-19 era, we have revised our statement with an emphasis that recess be included in every educational decision, considering and promoting what is in the best interest of the child: the right to rest, leisure, and play.
MAKE SURE STUDENTS HAVE DAILY TIME FOR RECESS [1]
Dr. Catherine Ramstetter, Successful Healthy Children, Cincinnati, OH. Co-author, American Academy of Pediatrics’ Policy on Recess.
Dr. Lauren McNamara, Recess Project Canada. Author of Redesigning Recess for the 21st Century and lead author of PHE Canada’s national position statement on recess.
Dr. Rebecca London. UC Santa Cruz. Author of Rethinking Recess: Creating Safe and Inclusive Playtime for All Children in School
Dr. Ed Baines, UCL Institute of Education, London, UK. Co-author of School Break and Lunch Times and Young People’s Social Lives: A Follow-up National Study.
Dr. Anna Beresin, University of the Arts, Philadelphia. Author of Recess Battles: Playing, Fighting, and Storytelling.
Dr. Charlene Woodham Brickman, Athens GA. Recess Experience, Recess and Play Consultant.
Jennette Claassen, MSW, Research and Evaluation, Playworks, Oakland, CA, USA.
William Doyle, Fulbright Scholar, Finland and NY. Co-Author (with Pasi Sahlberg) “Let the Children Play.”
Dr. Brendon Hyndman, Charles Sturt University, Australia. Author of Contemporary School Playground Strategies for Healthy Students.
Dr. Michael Hynes, Superintendent of Schools, NY, Author of Kids Need Play and Recess: Their Mental Health Depends on It.
Dr. Olga Jarrett, Georgia State University, Atlanta. Author of A research-based case for recess: Position paper (2019).
Dr. William Massey, Oregon State University. Lead researcher on the Great Recess Framework.
Dr. Debbie Rhea, The LiiNK Project Director, Texas Christian University. Author of Wrong Turns, Right Moves in Education.
Dr. Pasi Sahlberg, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia and Co-Author (with William Doyle) “Let the Children Play.”
CONTRIBUTING AUTHORS:
Dr. Claire LeBlanc, Associate Professor, Pediatrics, McGill University.
Dr. Peter Gray, Research Professor of Developmental Psychology at Boston College and author of Free to Learn: How Releasing the Instinct to Play Makes Our Children Happier, More Self-Reliant, and Better Students for Life.
Recess is the only unstructured time in the school day that provides space for children’s physical, social and emotional development, which are essential for well-being and learning. School recess is a crucial, scheduled time that students can rely on to freely discover, engage with peers or be by themselves, away from the confines of classroom walls, restrictive rules, or routines and regulations. Recess provides the time for students to make independent play decisions, explore their senses, and build relationships with peers; to meet their needs, socially, physically and mentally.
Across the globe, COVID-19 impacted every aspect of our lives. For children and adolescents, these effects included interrupted routines, family stress, boredom, loneliness, anxiety, and a lack of physically active social play and peer interaction. These experiences were diverse and uneven, both physically and emotionally: some thrived, others struggled, some experienced a little of both. Not only did these experiences vary between students, educators felt them as well.
For school leaders, COVID-19 presented challenges. Academic and social changes including delivery of instruction, social distancing, mask wearing, and barriers, both physical and portable impacted students and teachers alike. Teachers were burdened with a variety of new responsibilities from teaching completely virtually, to teaching in person, to doing both, all while facilitating their own children’s learning and coping with the upheaval of daily routines. While there were a wide range of approaches, the impact was universally disruptive. The effects were tremendously varied, with COVID-19 becoming another traumatic life experience felt more deeply by some of the most vulnerable students who were already facing adverse life events. And, these are some of the same students who have less access to recess, making it even more important to protect and fortify recess now.
Being at recess, seeing friends, playing, and socializing, adds normalcy to the school day and are important. Post-pandemic, educators may be noticing that some students struggle to interact with classmates in a school setting. We urge educational leaders and policymakers to prioritize recess in their schedules and take steps to ensure recess time is physically and emotionally safe, healthy, and beneficial for all students and adults.
IS RECESS NECESSARY? YES!
Decades of research indicate that rather than detracting from student learning, providing quality recess time supports learning and well-being. The American Academy of Pediatrics, which represents 67,000 children’s doctors, states: “Recess is a necessary break in the day for optimizing a child’s social, emotional, physical, and cognitive development. In essence, recess should be considered a child’s personal time, and it should not be withheld for academic or punitive reasons.”
When students experience stress, it is difficult for them to access the aspects of the brain that allow for thinking and reasoning. This applies to all young people in school, children and adolescents alike. Providing students with regular opportunities to play, socialize, rest, and re-energize is imperative. These opportunities improve mood, well-being, school engagement, behavior, learning, focus, attendance, and overall school climate. Without these opportunities, learning, school engagement, and mental health are severely compromised. This unprecedented moment in time is no exception.
However, all recesses are not created equal. Our collective research indicates that many schools do not have a history of quality recess experiences for their students. Some schools, especially those serving the most vulnerable, have reduced or eliminated recess (including withholding recess as a punishment). As well, some schools lack equipment, space, and supervision for recess, leading to exclusion, bullying, loneliness, and boredom. Given that for many students recess is the only time in their entire day that they have unstructured access to peers and spontaneous recreation, there is much more to do to secure their right to play and support them at this time.
POST-COVID-19: MAKE SURE STUDENTS HAVE DAILY TIME FOR RECESS
Although most schools have returned to pre-pandemic schedules, there is still a critical need to address the collective trauma and focus on mental, social, emotional and physical health. It is important, now more than ever—for both teachers and students—to ensure that they have the time and space in the school day to connect with others in activities that allow for meaningful and playful engagement.
To that end, dedicated and sufficient recess scheduling must be included in the schoolwide planning, with a focus on creating an overall setting that is conducive to meaningful, inclusive interactions and healthy play. We have combined our expertise to provide answers and concrete strategies for providing quality recess time that paves the way for a fundamental shift in the ways many schools approach recess. The objective is for education to reclaim its purpose to teach skills, provide intellectual exploration and foster emotional development, to safeguard student well-being as a foundation for learning.
RETHINKING SCHOOL RECESS POLICIES
- Schedule sustained periods of recess for every student every day, at least twice per day, preferably more.
- Given the many physical, social and emotional benefits of recess, do not withhold recess as punishment for any reason (e.g. as a consequence for missed schoolwork or poor classroom or lunchroom behavior).
- Count recess as instructional minutes so that every student can have recess time every day and teachers have time allocated to support recess.
- Hold recess outdoors whenever possible.
- Make use of the available indoor and outdoor spaces to provide a range of activity options and consider staggering schedules to decrease playground density.
- Provide dedicated break times for teachers regardless of whether they monitor their own students at recess.
- Involve students in the planning and organizing of recess time, including discussion about activities, inclusion, social harm, equipment management, fair play, and importantly handwashing.
SAFE RECESS PRACTICES
- Ensure there is adequate equipment and space for all students at recess.
- Offer a variety of outside spaces where free choice of different activities can take place, including quiet, creative, and solo activity spaces.
- Designate activity areas—such as skipping, chalking, creative, free play, dancing, or sports—and allow students to choose where to play and to explore. Designated areas will help organize the space, reduce anxiety, and reduce density at any one activity. Activity areas should be designed to scaffold engagement but should be flexible to allow for creativity, elaboration, exploration, experimentation, collaboration, and self-directed play.
- Provide leadership opportunities for students to help support each other and maintain the equipment.
- Recognize the importance of physically active play and consider a risk-benefit approach; strict rules like ‘no running’ and ‘no ball throwing’ can undermine the benefits of play and physical activity.
- Include a routine of handwashing or sanitizer upon returning to class.
SUPPORTING A SAFE AND HEALTHY RECESS
- Some students may experience a newfound shyness around play. Others may find crowded play areas overstimulating. Some may need time to adjust to the playground. All of the evidence surrounding play and times of trauma indicates that children who feel safe will reengage with play, if offered the opportunity. Students may be rusty on social and interactive skills within the school environment. Reminders about school core values and rules in times other than recess will help students to reintegrate.
- Advise recess staff so they are prepared to support students who have just experienced a major life disruption. Students may be more energetic, aggressive, or withdrawn, and they may have less capacity to self-regulate, resolve their own conflicts, or figure out how to play together.
- Some students will need help getting connected. Adults should be prepared to support healthy and inclusive play that attends to the needs of all students.
- Have a list of inclusive games handy, including those that need no equipment.
- Structured or sedentary activities—like watching movies, playing with phones, or activity break videos that do not provide students free choice, peer interactions, and some kind of movement opportunity—are not substitutes for recess.
We must continue to ensure—now and in the future—that all students have access to recess, and feel safe and included during that time in the school day. Our vision is that researchers, educators, and policy makers collaborate to build the body of knowledge about recess with the aim of implementing quality recess for all children to experience their right to play.
Suggested citation: Ramstetter, C., McNamara, L., London, R., Baines, E., Beresin, A., Brickman, C.W., Claassen, J., Doyle, W., Hyndman, B., Hynes, M., Jarrett, O., Massey, W., Rhea, D., Sahlberg, P. (Fall, 2022). Make sure students have time for daily recess. Global Recess Alliance.
©Global Recess Alliance
[1] What is referred to as “recess” by the American Academy of Pediatrics is often called “break time” or similar names in other countries. In this statement, we use “recess” as an inclusive term for meaningful, self-directed, recreational play, for all school-age children and adolescents through high school.
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