Owen Moore, left, and Miles Lawlor started a petition to ask their school to allow balls on the playground in the winter. (CBC)

A winter ban on playing with balls at an Ottawa public school has been partially lifted after two students collected 250 names on a petition.

As of Monday, students will be able to throw, catch and kick certain types of balls on the playground of D. Roy Kennedy Public School for the first time in three winters.

School principal Dana Slater had imposed the ban due to student injuries, saying snow and pebbles that stuck to the balls in winter posed a safety hazard.

However, she agreed to a compromise after Owen Moore, a Grade 5 student, and Miles Lawlor, in Grade 6, complained that the ban took the fun out of recess and started a petition to end it.

Under the compromise:

• Only soft, nerf-type balls will be allowed in winter.
• They will only be allowed on half the playground. The other half will be reserved for building snow forts.

Prior to the ban, Slater said, one student received a concussion after being hit by a ball and falling, while another received a serious injury after being struck with a ball in the eye area.

Lawlor said he thinks the new rules will stop children from getting badly hurt.

"Most of the time the concussions or black eyes were just because people were standing in the middle of a football or soccer game and they got a ball lugged at them uncontrollably," he added.

Both he and Moore said the petition taught them a lot about activism.