Lunchtime skateboarding program a hit with pupils at Liverpool school
The dr. John C. Wickwire Academy in Liverpool has turned its lunchtime gym into a skate park and the students are loving it.
Known as Project Skateboard, the program has been around for four years. Isaac Rafuse, a behavior support teacher, says the turnout was “amazing.”
The school provides students with the equipment and even offers a hand-painted ramp in the gym to perform tricks on.
Rafuse says the gym is used for skateboarding every morning, at lunch, and during many physical education classes.
Information morning – NS8:25The gym at Queens County Elementary School turns into a skate park every day
Pupils at a Liverpool primary school learn ollies, kickturns and other tricks during their school’s unique skateboarding programme. How cool is that? Information Morning’s Katy Parsons takes us through Project Skateboard on Dr. John A Wickwire Elementary School.
When Katy Parsons from CBC Radios Information Morning Nova Scotia When Keith Brown visited the school recently, he was eager to show off a new move he’d been practicing.
“This is a very difficult move,” says Brown, who is in fourth grade. “I don’t know what it’s called. I just do a drift on my knees on the board and I just drift around the corner.”
The program is partly funded by the Uplift Partnership, which says it provides support and learning for school-aged children and young people.
Rafuse also says some companies have been discounting equipment.
Skateboards cost between $300 and $350, he says, and other gear like knee pads, helmets, elbow pads and wrist guards total about $150 per student.
Rafuse says the program teaches children important social skills.
“Skateboarding is a great platform for kids to practice being polite to each other,” he says.
“They will bump into each other, people will make mistakes… you have to help them up. You have to apologize.”
Rafuse says he has seen students in the program progress in many ways.
Grade 5 student Ardennes Ozturk, who moved to Liverpool from Montreal in 2022, says it was exciting to hear that the school offered skateboarding.
“Basically we skateboard and sometimes we also play tag with the skateboards,” says Ozturk.
“We just play and sometimes some kids like to run into each other just for fun.”
Jayden Whynot, who is also in 5th grade, echoed Ozturk’s enthusiasm.
“My favorite thing about skateboarding is that you learn and then get better every few seconds and then take the ramp and really get better,” says Whynot.
Rafuse says other schools in the area have begun similar programs in the past two years.
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