Quote Originally Posted by Throbert McGee View Post

(And "recess" in the American elementary-school sense, when the children are allowed a free half-hour of time for play between lessons, would be перерыв, as far as I know.)
The two words are used in this sense: перерыв and перемена. The former can be used everywhere (elem.school, university, work environment), the latter is in elem. and high school context mostly.