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372
PHYSICAL TRAINING.
(a) Girls' and Infants' Departments.
The physical training is conducted by the teachers in the
schools, and is supervised by the Organiser of Physical Training,
Miss Appleton, from whose report the following extracts are
given:—
Physical education in our schools includes not only the
formal physical exercise lessons, as in former years, but games of
all kinds, dancing, swimming, athletic sports and camping.
Again the work has been hampered by weather conditions,
for many of the schools are still entirely dependent on the playground,
and there were many days when this was unsuitable
owing to inclement weather.
During the year provision to various schools of a certain
amount of equipment in the form of team bands, bean bags, and
jumping ropes helped considerably. This equipment was supplied
as an outcome of a questionnaire sent to the schools in June.
All Girls and Senior Mixed departments except two again
attended the swimming baths during the summer season, and five
hundred and twenty five girls were taught to swim a width for the
first time. The swimming arrangements for all schools were inconvenienced
by the General Strike and consequent coal stoppage,
as the times at the baths had to be curtailed. Especially was this
the case with the schools using Thornton Heath baths, which were
closed entirely during May and June. In spite of this shortage of
accommodation, however, I am happv to report there is verv little
difference from 1925, either in the number of beginners taught to
swim or the number of certificates gained for swimming 30 or 50
yards, and there is an actual increase in the number of Life
Saving Certificates, as will be seen from the appended list. The
number of Royal Life Saving Society Bronze Medallions gained
is a record one, and for the first time a Croydon Elementary
School girl obtained the Award of Merit of the Royal Life Saving
Society, and another girl obtained the Teachers' Certificate of the
same Society. These results probably owe much to the free tickets
again kindly granted to each school by the Baths Committee,
thus enabling swimmers to obtain extra practice
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