View report page

15
Physical Training.
Miss F. W. Bentley and Mr. G. H. Atkinson, the Organisers
of Physical Education for Erith have kindly submitted
the following notes on their work during the year, and I have
much pleasure in including these in my Annual Report for
the year 1941.
1. INTRODUCTION.
With the return of more normal conditions for school work
and attendance, it has been possible during the past year to
restore the subject of Physical Education to a position much
nearer its pre-war level. Improvement has been due partly
to the increased regularity of the physical training and games
lessons, and partly to general raising of the standard of teaching
among those members of school staffs who, since the outbreak
of war, have been required to fill the gaps left by their younger
colleagues who had been called to the Services.
Offsetting this improvement, increasing difficulties have
been experienced in obtaining replacements of physical training
and games materials, and with the recent rationing of clothing
and footwear, the problem of ensuring the satisfactory personal
equipment of children for their P.T. lessons has already given
cause for concern.
2. ORGANISED GAMES.
Owing to the increasing difficulties of arranging for the
transport of children to and from the Committee's Playing
Fields, it has been impossible to cater adequately for this
subject in all schools in the Borough. Only those schools which
are fortunate in being situated within easy reach of grass pitches
have been able to show any real progress in this subject, and
unless' more attention is given to the upkeep and maintenance
of school grounds, the general standard of games even in these
schools is likely to decline.
3. TRAINING OF TEACHERS.
Previous local arrangements for the further training of
teachers specialising in Physical Education had enabled the
organisers to conduct teacher's classes during school hours.
Owing to the general depletion of the regular school staffs and
the shortage of supply teachers of a type suitable for training
in this subject, it has been judged impracticable to continue
such arrangements during the past year.
The question of evening or Saturday classes has been considered
as a possible alternative but found equally impracticable
owing to the many extraneous duties in which teachers as a
whole were occupied in their out-of-school hours.