Ontario schoolyards 'wasting an opportunity' for active play and need upgrading, study says
CBC
When their Toronto schoolyard was upgraded from a muddy field and shadeless asphalt to a playground and artificial turf, Annie Vandenburg said the way her two children play changed too.
Her kids and their classmates no longer seemed bored at recess but made up creative games, ran and played soccer and found quiet places to take a breath, said Vandenburg.
"Not only did it become more engaging and exciting for kids, but it can also become outdoor classrooms for teachers, like extensions of the inside," she said.
The rest of the upgrades to the schoolyard shared by Perth Avenue Junior Public School and St. Luigi Catholic School won't be completed until later this year, but Vandenburg, who worked for more than a decade with a non-profit organization to improve schoolyards across Canada, sees opportunities for tree planting and learning gardens.
But it's not the only one that requires a facelift.
Schoolyards across Ontario lack the necessities to encourage kids to get active, play imaginatively and connect with nature and need improvement, new research suggests.
A study found 73 per cent of schools surveyed scored poorly when it comes to serving the needs of students. In particular, 10 per cent of schools had no fields, 13 per cent had no shade from trees and 16 per cent had no courts for sports like basketball, which Wilfred Laurier University Prof. Kelly Gallagher-Mackay describes as appalling.
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