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PHYSICAL EDUCATION.
I am indebted to the Physical Education Advisers, Mr
J. Hopkins and Miss J. Hulton for the following report:—
During 1959 the work in the schools has continued to
reveal the great potential of the children now growing up.
During their primary years they show quite a remarkable
ability to run, jump, twist and turn in increasingly complex
ways, and opportunities for extending this range is provided
by the wide range of apparatus supplied for this purpose. It
is no exaggeration to say that the Junior Schools of the Borough
are as well equipped for Physical Education as any in
the County.
At Secondary level the difficulties met, when there is
not the best of accommodation, hamper the progress made,
and although there is no lack of good work it is achieved in
spite of the conditions and not because of them. Physical
Education is not only the acquisition of skill at games and
gymnastics; it is also an attitude of mind towards personal
habits, cleanliness, clothes, physical surroundings, comradeship,
leadership and the good life. Many of these are achieved
under present conditions but only as the result of many improvisations.
In the Borough there are only two gymnasia where there
should be ten for secondary education. In eight of the schools,
halls are used which serve a dual purpose for assembly and
gymnastics. To keep a floor clean when hundreds of shoes
shed their dust and dirt on it as soon as school begins is not
a reasonable proposition for the teacher of Physical Education.
This lack of gymnasia means that much of the good
achieved in the primary stage is not capitalised in the secondary
school, and the outside observer does not get the impression
that the work continues to expand in complexity and
intensity throughout the school years, except in games and
athletics. Again Basket Ball, which has developed as a fine
indoor game in other areas, has not flourished in the Bexley
Schools for the same reason that the halls cannot be equipped
for the game because they lack size or have unsuitable back
walls.
Many of the secondary schools now extend their physical
education programme into holiday time and one has developed
ski-ing in Switzerland as a desirable pursuit. Many of the
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