"If exercise came in pill form, it would be plastered across the front page, hailed as the blockbuster drug of the century". Ratey and Hagerman

Schools have often implied a link between academic performance and physical activity. Every summer term, the debate rages as to whether playing summer sports enhances or impedes exam performance. Missing lessons for sports fixtures is one of the all-time leaders of intra colleague friction.

Given this, it is perhaps surprising that the abundant science is not leveraged to clarify the facts regarding the undisputed benefits of exercise to learning. Schools devote a significant...

There never was an equivalent of Cricket for girls. A game that occupied almost everyone at different levels of ability and formed the bulk of the competitive programme. Cricket occupied that role for over a hundred years in boys’ schools, and part of the legacy of its current declining popularity is the question of what replaces it.

For girls, the summer term offers an often inadequate combination of Tennis, Athletics and Rounders. None is entirely satisfactory. Tennis has a high entry level of skill requirement, and uses facilities inefficiently: Athletics captures the imagination of few teenage girls, and the...

It’s that time of year again. Across the country, in conditions that are a bit too cool and on fields that are a bit too damp, Athletics lessons are in full swing.

There will be few schools who do not provide comprehensive coverage of throws and jumps, not least because they are encouraged to do so by the National Curriculum. And equally few schools who have found engaging ways to deliver Field events. The red faces that were smiling and laughing in previous terms’ games are significantly more rare as they form their dutiful queues waiting for the chance...