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43
STATEMENT OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION DURING
THE YEAR ENDED 31st DECEMBER, 1940.
1. Introduction.
Conditions which, in the latter part of 1939 did so
much to arrest the progress of development of Physical
Education in our schools, have continued to react to this
subject's disadvantage. During the past year much
time, which would normally have been devoted to the
teaching of physical exercises and games, has been lost
owing to the frequency of Air Raid Warnings and the
consequent confining of children to their school shelters.
Lack of shelter accommodation has continued to Prohibit
the use of excellent facilities for class instruction,
and the withdrawal of more men teachers into the services
has been a cause of increasing difficulty in the
matter of school staffing.
Added to these problems has been the difficulty of
obtaining replacements of physical training and games
apparatus—many of the items previously supplied to
schools having become so scarce that firms have been
unable to meet more than a fraction of normal demands.
Under such adverse conditions, the task of maintaining
the standard of Physical Education set up prior
to the war, has placed a severe strain upon the resources
of the teaching staff, who, in face of other equally
urgent problems, have nevertheless neither neglected
nor belittled the subject's requirements.
2. Physical Exercises.
Limitations of playground space by the siting of
Air Raid Shelters has reduced both the scope and value
of the Playground Lesson. Preparation of these sites
has involved the destruction of large areas of playground
surface, the reconditioning of which has been a matter
of urgency for some considerable time. In view of this
loss of space for exercises and games, it is fortunate
that so many of our elementary schools are adequately
provided with such excellent indoor accommodation.
Our three well-equipped gymnasia and our school halls
have proved a real boon to the children of the Borough
whose physical education without these facilities would
have been far more seriously interrupted.