Girls' Games - Tales from the Touchline

The view of the President of the GSA

GIRLS are being deterred from taking part in competitive sport by PE teachers who humiliate them, according to the president of the Girls’ Schools Association.

Hilary French, headmistress of Central Newcastle High School, a leading girls’ school, said: “The old-style barracking associated with many PE teachers destroys confidence and turns girls off sport. Intimidation, shouting at and humiliating girls by telling them they are useless at hockey is disastrous.

“Girls feel self-conscious and embarrassed. Girls and boys need a different approach when it comes to teaching sport: lots of girls need persuading and coaxing. They can be just as competitive as boys, provided they have confidence.”

Research to be presented to a conference this week shows that girls begin dropping out of sport as young as nine and by the age of 14 there are far fewer girls than boys taking part in competitive games. Greg Whyte, professor of applied sport and exercise science at Liverpool John Moores University, has coached more than a dozen celebrities through charity sports challenges, including Miranda Hart, the actress, and Cheryl Cole, the pop star.

“I get celebrities coming to me for coaching who have had horrific PE experiences at school,” he said.

Whyte, who, like French, will speak at this week’s conference, prepared Hart to cycle from Land’s End to John O’Groats despite her never having ridden a bike.

Earlier this month, Pippa Middleton, the sister of the Duchess of Cambridge, wrote of “gruelling cross-country runs” and the “horror of swimming galas” in a magazine article about her time at Marlborough College.

As a pupil at Merchant Taylors’ Girls’ School near Liverpool, Jane Garvey, presenter of Woman’s Hour on BBC Radio 4, had a “legendary hockey mistress who drove up and down the side of the hockey pitch in her white Mini”.

“The pitch on the banks of the river Mersey was viciously cold,” said Garvey, who recalled “freezing mornings” dressed in an Aertex shirt and shorts.

Some have fonder memories. Claudia Winkleman, the television presenter who attended City of London School for Girls, said: “I absolutely loved PE. I think playing games is vital for girls. It can’t be all times tables and spellings.”