Norwood (1943)

Notes on the text
Preliminary pages Membership, Contents, Introduction

Part I Secondary education
Chapter 1 Nature of secondary education
Chapter 2 Secondary education as it is
Chapter 3 Secondary education as it might be

Part II Examinations
Chapter 4 Existing examinations
Chapter 5 The reorganisation of examinations (i)
Chapter 6 The reorganisation of examinations (ii)
Chapter 7 The Inspectorate

Part III Curriculum
Chapter 8 The curriculum in general
Chapter 9 Physical education
Chapter 10 Religious education
Chapter 11 English
Chapter 12 History
Chapter 13 Geography
Chapter 14 Mathematics
Chapter 15 Natural science
Chapter 16 Modern languages
Chapter 17 Classics
Chapter 18 Art, music, handicrafts
Chapter 19 Domestic subjects
Chapter 20 Education for commerce
Chapter 21 Wales and the teaching of Welsh

Conclusions and recommendations
Appendix A Note on the Central Welsh Board
Appendix B List of witnesses
Index

Report of the Committee of the Secondary School Examinations Council appointed by the President of the Board of Education in 1941

London: HM Stationery Office 1943

Chapter 9 Physical education
[pages 79 - 84. In the printed version this is Part III Chapter II]

Note: 'His' and 'he' include 'her' and 'she'.

Of the three elements of a good education of which we spoke on an earlier page, we deal first with physical education.

A pupil has a right to expect, and it is the duty of those who undertake responsibility for his education to ensure, that his body shall be educated as well as his mind. On healthy growth and vigour of body largely depends his intellectual development, and right discipline of the body can contribute powerfully to moral strength. If his health and physical development do not reach the highest limits of which they are capable, he can neither draw from his school what he should draw nor give to it what he should give. Moreover, when he has left school, his health is a matter of the utmost importance to himself, his family and his fellow workers and fellow citizens.

Thus it is part of the task of a school to provide an environment in which its pupils can grow up in health and fitness, and within that environment to offer such general training as is necessary for a full and varied physical education and such special training as the circumstances of the school may suggest. Accordingly we shall speak first of the conditions which should exist, and then of physical education in its general and special forms, and finally we shall summarise what we regard as the needs of physical education to which special attention seems to be due.

We include in the necessary conditions, first, a right attitude toward nutrition, including school dinners, and then all the material surroundings and activities conducive to health and necessary to physical education; school buildings which give light and air and warmth, playing fields for games, gymnasia, both covered and open; facilities for remedial work and medical inspection, for swimming and athletic sports; provision of school dinners under suitable conditions and in a suitable room. On none of these matters do we claim to have special knowledge, and it would be wrong of us to treat fully of any of them; they are subjects for consideration by experts. But we would observe that the conditions upon which successful physical education is dependent must include something no less important than bricks and mortar and wide acres, namely a right attitude on the part of the school as a whole towards health and physical welfare - an attitude which, taken up by successive generations of pupils, is strengthened into a habit and a tradition, intangible, it may be, but capable of being caught by pupils from the life of the school. Thus the mainspring of physical education is to be found in something outside itself, in an attitude of mind, and its aim in the last resort is a right attitude to life on its physical side.

To these conditions head master and staff and, guided by them, senior pupils all have their contribution to make. The creation of the right attitude is in their hands alone, and it is for them to work out in their full knowledge of their school what are the implications of a right attitude, not only as regards physical education itself but also as regards its relation to the intellectual activities of the classroom.

The contribution which all members of the staff can make to the general aim of physical education is much the same in all schools. Briefly, it means attaching due importance to the physical welfare of pupils and so reinforcing the efforts of those specially concerned with physical education. By such cooperation it will become apparent to pupils that physical education is not a 'subject' confined to special periods and places and teachers, but that it is directed to an end more pervasive, that it is a part of that care of the physical self which can contribute to an abundant life. We certainly do not contemplate that teachers shall fuss, that pupils shall become self-conscious and valetudinarian, that the First XI shall be encouraged to take too exalted a view of their worth. But we do consider that it is part of every schoolmaster's task to consider the physical welfare of his pupils as within his province and to take and to show interest in it. He should have regard to the ventilation and lighting of his classroom, to the posture and bearing of his pupils, to signs of fatigue and overpressure; a word in season, as every good teacher knows, will do much to alter the outlook of an individual or a form.

The point of real importance is that boys and girls should learn that men and women whom they respect perhaps for intellectual ability and quality of mind regard physical health and endurance as being among ideals worth pursuit. If the right attitude towards physical well-being is to be fostered in a school, it is essential that all its teachers, perhaps even more if they themselves have no success to show in athletics or games, should contribute to the creation of that right attitude. Only thus can it be something taken for granted as an ideal, something natural to the place, unselfconscious and without distortion or exaggeration; only thus, in short, can physical education itself in its widest sense be at its healthiest.

Before we pass to physical education in the narrower sense, we would emphasise that continuity is of as much importance in physical education as in any other aspect of education. It is of importance therefore that those concerned with it in the secondary school should know what is the previous history and record of the pupils whom they receive front the primary school. It would be of great advantage if a continuous record of the physical 'history' of each child were to be kept through the nursery school and the primary school and finally be available to the secondary school. The medical officer and the instructors of the secondary school would then have before them certain data about new entrants which would be of value to them in planning physical education and in interpreting its effects, in detecting disabilities and ascertaining their causes and their remedies.

The record then should be carried on from primary school to secondary school, where it should be maintained in as full a form as is needed. Medical inspection, which has proved of great benefit in the past should take place more frequently than at present, and we would draw attention to the need for close cooperation in this matter between the medical officer and those who carry out the physical education of the school. This will mean not only an increase in the number of doctors, but also a special training directed to this end. It will imply, too, further call upon the time of teachers of physical education, who, in our opinion, should regularly confer with the medical officer so that the precautionary and remedial measures prescribed by him may be carried out successfully. Remedial exercises recommended by the medical officer should be carried out by people suitably qualified for the purpose.

The 'physical record' of pupils should be made available to the staff, at any rate as regards essentials; for, if they were aware of these essentials, much indirect aid would be given to them in creating the right attitude to physical health of which we spoke above, and in supporting in special cases the efforts of the medical officer and teachers of physical training.

The general scheme of physical education to be put into operation in a school must in our opinion vary somewhat according to needs and conditions. A systematic course of physical training in the narrow sense should form an integral part of that scheme and should follow the lines which research and expert opinion have laid down. There should also be organised games, athletics, dancing and swimming and such other wholesome outdoor activities as the circumstances of the school suggest or allow; many boys' schools will wish to include also boxing, wrestling and fencing.

It will usually be best if the general direction of the scheme and observation of its working as a whole is made the responsibility of one teacher. The last thing, however, that we would wish to suggest is that he should displace or discourage keen members of the staff who may be in charge of certain games or sports in which they are particularly interested or skilled. Nor do we believe in severe regimentation of the physical education of the pupils of the country or of a given school; the problem here, as in other spheres, is to discover the middle way between excessive regimentation and a loose reliance upon individual intention, spasmodic voluntary effort and casualness which cannot produce either the right attitude of mind or the desired physical results. But, given the goodwill of the staff and reasonable tact on the part of the master upon whom lies chief responsibility for the working of the scheme, that middle way is not difficult to find.

We have been impressed by the strength of the evidence put before us in favour of a daily period of organised physical activity, whether this takes the form of physical exercises or games or other activity. We would make this recommendation with the caution, however, that all schools have not the same circumstances and that no scheme of physical education should be such as to lead to fatigue; and we add that to us the important points are that such activity should be organised under skilled direction and should take place under suitable conditions determined by circumstances and should apply to all pupils, no matter in what form they may be. We are not prepared to say what are those suitable conditions; we must leave pronouncement upon them to others, but we would say, first, that much can be done under conditions by no means ideal; secondly, that provision of such a period when conditions are quite unsuitable will result in no gain but probable loss; thirdly, that many schools are in need of far better facilities for physical education than they now enjoy; fourthly, that every opportunity should be taken to carry out the work in the open air.

The lack of facilities for the training of men teachers as compared with those for the training of women teachers is well known. We do no more than draw attention to this serious defect once again. But we are anxious to urge that the differences of opinion, which our evidence proves to exist, as regards the right training for teachers should be resolved and a long term policy conceived on generous lines should be put into operation as soon as possible in the interest of the physical education of the schools. To the solution of this problem we make only the following contributions.

In the first place we hold that in training departments of universities physical education as a necessary constituent in a good education should receive greater attention than is at present the practice. We are not suggesting that every student in training should go through classes designed to fit him in turn to take classes of children, though experience of such training would be of value to him in his capacity as a teacher of any subject; but we do suggest that the claims of physical education upon his sympathetic understanding as a schoolmaster should be brought to his attention.

In the second place teachers of physical training should have some other subject at their command and should take active share in its teaching. We urge this for these reasons:

(i) continuous teaching throughout the week imposes a considerable physical strain upon instructors, and as instructors advance in years this strain increases.

(ii) it is important that there should always be some young and vigorous teacher engaged in the physical instruction of a school; often opportunity can be given for this only if the senior instructor also takes some share in other teaching.

(iii) it is desirable for the sake of the teachers themselves that they should have some other interest and occupation which would not only offer change from their usual work but would also take them into departments of school life into which they would not otherwise go. Such a practice would help to destroy the common conception of physical education as an isolated pursuit taught by specialists who are interested in little else. Physical education would be drawn into more intimate relationship with other aspect of education and a greater unity would be achieved.

We have naturally given thought to the project of awarding county or even national badges of physical achievement, and expecting all boys and girls to compete for them. It is a scheme which at first sight is attractive, but it remains our opinion that it is one thing for each individual school to put before its pupils a reasonable standard of progressive development, and quite another to set up a county or national norm. We fear that this would in effect establish a measuring rod for comparing one school with another, and might result in a system under which individuals would be unduly depressed both in their own opinion and in that of their fellows. It is, in our opinion, a system of external regimentation which might upset the balance of values on which true education depends, and for this reason, in this as in other fields, we would leave it to each school to work out a progressive course which for that school is the best, and of which it is the best judge.

But we think it a good thing that schools should devise for themselves standards of physical achievement, as many do. The raising of personal performance, won through the surmounting of individual difficulties by discipline and endurance, is of profound moral significance as well as physical. Individual effort to surpass one's own achievement, no less than cooperation and team work, is altogether to be encouraged. Among such standards we should certainly welcome carefully devised tests of endurance, of resourcefulness and enterprise suggested by the nature of the surrounding country.

In this connection we would make mention of Scouting and Guiding, school camps, tours, sailing clubs, which for many boys and girls provide whether in term or in holidays an incentive and means to training in resourcefulness, self-reliance and ideals of usefulness and independence. Besides Scouting, other courses and schools and movements have been brought to our notice; their aim is to bring boys and girls in touch with sea and mountain, and in open-air tasks and ventures to build up the moral strength and create the physical endurance which come from such contact. To such enterprises we would draw attention; for we believe that in the future the nation must pay greater heed to the vocations which depend directly upon sea and land and air, and we think that fuller cooperation and understanding between those concerned with education and those who live their lives in such callings would contribute much to restore the attractiveness of such callings and to spread a deeper appreciation of the challenging opportunities and the full life which they offer. The experience of the war has shown that the young people of this country can respond to situations demanding courage and endurance; these qualities, we should hope, will be directed during school days to activities which give them scope and which lead on to occupations making the same demands in the circumstances of peace.