Education Sport
Early learners S
Gymnastics and swimming are just as important as team sports, says John Goodbody who argues that it’s vital that physical literacy is learned when young
wimming and gymnastics has tended to be overlooked in favour of traditional British team sports such as cricket and netball, football and rugby, by heads keen to foster team sportsmanship. Increasingly, however,
many prep schools have come to recognise that these are important life skills, which should not be over- looked. An activity like PE can set up even the least sporty children with a physical literacy, which can be transferred over to other activities when they are older. Prep schools free from curricular restrictions, can
emphasise the long-term physical development of children rather than concentrating on short-term winning of fi xtures. “We regard swimming as crucial so that individuals learn to perform all the basic strokes competently,” says headmaster Beardmore Gray of Mowden Hall School, Northumberland. “We have a double lesson every week from the nursery section until they leave at 13 years-old. Mowden Hall also has two PE teachers specialising in gymnastics with a double curriculum lesson during the autumn and spring terms so that pupils learn to acquire the basic moves. T e school is keen not to undermine the team sports
If a
child is going to be outstanding in gymnastics or swimming, they must be of a very high level when at prep school
ethos, so gymnasts are encouraged to take part as part of a team and to join in the other sports. We have outdoor games every afternoon, including Saturday, with the exception of Tuesdays, so we get a nice balance with pupils acquiring skills in those sports as well as learning to be part of a team, thus fostering comradeship and the “living-in- the-community feel.” As the Olympics approach, there is also an important consideration for Britain’s ability to compete internationally. Swimming and gymnastics share one distinct feature – if a child is going to be an outstanding competitor in either, they must
already be of a very high level when they are at prep school. You cannot take up either activity in your teens and expect to become of national, let alone international, standard, unlike say a sport such as rowing, where almost all of the current Olympic squad started the sport after the age of 13. However, that is not the real point because few pupils will have the ability or inclination to achieve such a level. What
matters is the skill itself. Let us take swimming fi rst. As Jon Glenn, Head of Learn to Swim at the Amateur Swimming
50 FirstEleven Autumn 2011
Association, says: “It is the only subject on the national curriculum that could save a pupil’s life. It is essential as a life skill and, for youngsters, this is important if they are playing near water. And you cannot do sports such as water polo, triathlon, diving, surfi ng or rowing unless you are a competent swimmer.” Being able to swim properly and competently provides an individual with added security. “In addition, swimming
exercises the whole body but is much gentler on the joints than most sports and so there is far less chance of injury. It is a life-long activity with people able to carry out gentle exercise, say three times a week for 30 minutes, during which they would burn up 200 calories at each session, into old age.” Indeed, one only has to go to a local pool to observe the popularity of “fi tness swimming” in specifi ed lanes. Glenn adds: “What is important is that this skill is best acquired when you are young. You are less likely to do so as an adult.” Under the national curriculum, by the age of 11, pupils should be able to swim unaided “for a sustained period of time over a distance of at least 25 metres and be able to perform front and back crawl, breaststroke, fl oating and surface diving.” Glenn says that a 2010 survey showed that 80% of schoolchildren, both state and independent, achieved this. Of course, this is the very minimum and most parents of 11 year-olds would rightly be wary of allowing their children to swim alone unless their ability was far superior to this. It is also a far less daunting prospect of swimming 25 metres in a warm pool rather than even the same distance in open water. Glenn says that the ASA estimates there are about
Pupils at a Bute House swimming gala
2,000 schools with their own pools in England, a very high proportion being those in the independent sector and says: “Of course, there is a fantastic advantage to have a pool on site because it saves time in travelling.” Even so, there is little time enough because of the need for pupils to change clothes twice. At Bute House in Hammersmith, they use the facilities of St. Paul’s Girls’ School, whose pool adjoins the prep school. However, Romilly Hunt, the swimming coach, estimates that in a 35-minute lesson, pupils are
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