Thursday, 22 June 2023
“There is something rotten in the state of Denmark” (Shakespeare’s Hamlet), and in the Machiavellian buying of talented sportsmen from schools by coaches to enhance their own reputations. Sadly, ethics, integrity and decency are sacrificed on the altar of a mistaken belief that success in sport...
Monday, 22 May 2023
Late April and early May are not good times for curriculum PE and Games. Often deprived of indoor facilities by exam demands, and facing the historical primacy of Athletics, lessons on damp, cool fields can be uninspiring. Field events are especially vulnerable to being slow-moving, overly...
Tuesday, 30 November 2021
When inter-school sport began in the second half of the 19th century, each school had only one team. It was ‘The XV’ or ‘The XI’. Everyone else played internal games, between Houses or random fixtures such as North Side of Chapel v South and Light hair v Dark. With compulsory games every afternoon...
Tuesday, 9 November 2021
Primary school playgrounds are full of children running around. It’s a default state that brings smiles to red faces. Adult mass participation running events, including the flagship Parkrun and Race for Life, are equally popular. This evidence would suggest that running is a popular activity which...
Monday, 27 September 2021
Rugby Football has had a long and prominent place in the history of UK schools. Many boys fell in love with the game at an early age, played enthusiastically throughout their years in education and had a lifelong involvement in community clubs, often organisations founded for the old boys of their...
Thursday, 24 September 2020
It wouldn’t be like this if it didn’t have to be. Without the unwelcome intervention of a pandemic, autumn term sport in schools would be progressing in its usual form. September Saturdays would have seen hosts of school teams, principally in Hockey, Lacrosse and both codes of Football driving...
