Drill, Physical Training & Physical
Education in state schools
A2 Physical Education
Learning objectives (1)
 How physical activity in state elementary
schools progressed from military drill to
physical training (PT) and then to Physical
Education (PE) between 1900 and 1950
 The ways in which drill, PT and PE in state
schools impacted on participation and the
promotion of healthy lifestyles.
 How to link what happened then to what is
happening in schools today
Learning objectives (2)
 The objectives, content and teaching
methodology of each approach
 How war affected the different approaches
 How did the experiences of working class
children differ from that of middle & upper
class children.
Learning Objectives (3)
 The Impact on participation of teachers’
industrial action in the 1970s & 80s
 The aims of the National Curriculum for PE
(NCPE) & how to critically evaluate its
impact.
‘While officers prepared for battle on the
fields of Eton… their troops prepared with
military drill in school playgrounds.’
The best way
to civilise street
Arabs and hooligans
was to drill
them in habits
of instant obedience
Elementary School Drill
 FORSTERS 1870 EDUCATION ACT WAS AN ATTEMPT TO ‘PLUG
THE GAP’ IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLING AND LED TO THE
DEVELOPMENT OF BOARD SCHOOLS.
 IN BRITAIN BEFORE 1870 THERE WAS NO NATIONAL SYSTEM
OF ELEMENTARY EDUCATION – MOST PROVISION WAS FEE
PAYING AND THEREFORE ONLY CHILDREN OF THE UPPER
AND MIDDLE CLASSES WERE EDUCATED.
 FOSTER ACT, 1870 – MADE EDUCATION COMPULSORY FOR ALL
CHILDREN BETWEEN THE AGES OF 5 AND 13 YEARS. THERE
WAS GREAT CONCERN ABOUT THE HEALTH AND FITNESS OF
THE WORKING-CLASS CHILDREN.
 THE ACT STATED ‘ATTENDANCE AT DRILL UNDER A
COMPETENT INSTRUCTOR FOR NOT MORE THAN TWO
HOURS PER WEEK AND TWENTY WEEKS IN THE YEAR.
Elementary School Drill
 Objectives
 Content
 Fitness for army recruits
 1870s: Military Drill
 Discipline
 1890s: Swedish Drill
 In 1866 The Army
 1900: Board of
rejected 380 out of each
1000 recruits.
Education stated that
games were a suitable
alternative.
 Methodology
 Authoritarian / Command-Response
 Taught by army NCOs in 1870s
 Taught by qualified class teachers in 1890s
Humiliation of the British Army
 Following the humiliation of the British Army by a
small group of Dutch settlers in the Boer War the
Generals and Politicians decided to blame:
 Lack of Fitness of the soldiers.
 Swedish Drill being taught in schools.
 The Board of Education (now called the DFES)
and the War Office devised a new programme of
PE called the Model Course of Physical Training.
Colonel Fox
 A long-serving army officer.
 His regime involved basic military drill.
 It was heavily criticised for treating children like
soldiers.
The Model Course of Physical
Training 1902
 ‘It is important therefore that the short time
claimed for physical training should be
devoted wholly to useful exercises. No part
of that time should be wasted on what is
merely spectacular or entertaining, but
every exercise should have its peculiar
purpose and value in a complete system
framed to develop all parts of the body’
Objectives
 Fitness (for military service)
 Training in handling of weapons
 Discipline
Content
 Military Drill
 Exercises
 Weapon Training
 Deep Breathing
Methodology
 Command-response (for example, ‘Attention’, ‘Stand at
Ease’, ‘Marching, about turn’)
 Group response/no individuality
 In ranks
Key points to remember
 In 1902 military needs became more powerful than
educational theory.
 The Swedish Drill was seen as a theraputic approach so
abandoned.
 Girls and boys were instructed together.
 Taught by army NCO’s (or teachers who had been
trained by them).
 Dull and repetitive but cheap.
Key Points continued
 Large numbers in small spaces.
 Set against a backdrop of poor diets, bad housing and
other forms of social deprivation.
 It lowered the status of the subject.