View report page

162
progress, especially in preparing courses which may provide an
effective structure for those pupils who will now stay on for an
extra year when the Act comes into force in 1972/73. It has been
shown that physical education can provide the motivating force
to enable a less able pupil to produce work of excellence. Allied
to this, is work out of doors called "Learning from Life." This
combines ecology, problem solving, orienteering, map reading,
adventure and exercise in adaptability which have something
significant to contribute to education in a rapidly changing
society.
It is true to say that more and more is being packed into the
curriculum so that one school can say that in physical education
alone it practises twenty-six activities and another that it has
carried out three hundred and forty fixtures during the past year.
The enlargement of secondary schools in the Borough means
that better facilities are now possible. Already three fine games
halls have been built and three more are at the planning stage.
These buildings will serve the community as well as the school
and should bring nearer the hope that before very long everyone
will be able to take part in the sporting activity of his choice
within easy distance of home.
The English Schools' Athletic Championship
The past year has seen the culmination of a tremendous
joint effort in which the London Borough of Bromley played
a major role in organising and presenting the English Schools'
Athletic Championships at the Crystal Palace National Sports
Centre.
The detailed planning of this event was under the chairmanship
of a Bromley physical education teacher; the billetting of
two thousand four hundred competitors and three hundred officials
was organised by another Bromley teacher; and sale of
tickets and seating, the organisation and distribution of meals, the
organisation and stewarding of the track and field events were
all the responsibility of Bromley staff.
No praise can be too great for the efficiency and high
quality of the organisation exhibited during two days of superb
athletics. Few meetings have ever presented each event more
efficiently, so that everyone knew what was happening at each
part of the arena. No meeting in Europe had as many athletes
taking part in a single meeting.
The detailed planning was finally written up in a seventy-two
page booklet, a copy of which has been sent on a request to
UNESCO.
The occasion has been greatly praised by the counties which