Alone on the School Field

The atmosphere in this scene looks lively for most of the students but lonely for one. In the picture, a group is playing a game on the field and shouting to each other, while a single student sits on the bleachers a distance away, watching them. He is not reading or doing anything else, so he seems to want to be part of it. What I also noticed is that nobody in the group has turned around to look at him, so they may not even realise he is there.

During recess last year, I noticed a boy from another class standing near the court watching us play captain's ball. On the second day I saw him there again, so I asked if he wanted to join and told him our team was one player short, which was true. He was quiet at first but he turned out to be very fast, and he has played with us ever since. I learnt that people often want to join but are waiting to be asked.

I would go over and invite him to join, and I would try to make it easy for him to say yes, for example by saying that we need one more player rather than asking whether he is lonely. If he did not want to play, I might sit with him for a while instead, because company matters more than the game. I would do this because being left out is not always about being disliked, and often the only thing standing in the way is that nobody made the first move.