When the inspectors came to Leaden Hall they were very interested in some unusual exercises that the children in the Foundation Stage seemed to be taking in their stride.

Mrs Mansell, their teacher, explains;

"Over the last few years we have developed a programme of Eurythmy exercises to enhance our wide range of activities and develop the children's co-ordination. We realised that many children who have been carefully nurtured at home, although academically advanced, are being hindered by their lack of physical stamina"

Mrs Helen Gillott, Head of Pre-Prep, has been studying the effects of a more sedentary society on the development of young children.

"In the past, without us realising, our muscles were developing whilst we were playing traditional playground games. Nowadays, children often come to school at the age of three or four with very different skills than those of their parents at the same age. Computers have enabled young children to have quick reactions and enhanced responses to visual stimuli, but unfortunately, their skills in manipulating materials are far less developed. Cutting, sticking, threading, sewing, painting, playing with dough and plasticene, all need adult interaction to allow space and time to make the 'mess' needed to experiment and learn.

Without practice, children's muscles in their arms and hands can fail to develop properly, so that when they come to learning to write, their upper body strength is so limited that they struggle to cope. Playing in a sheltered, safe, but restricted, environment means that young children have not swung on branches of trees, climbed on rough terrain, crawled into dens and played traditional games of tag, hide and seek and throwing a ball against a wall."

If a child can start a school with a programme full of multi sensory enquiry where they can play alongside other children, use their growing hands to make music, crawl through obstacles in the gym, swing from wall bars, learn to knit, make camps in the dens, get safely dirty and do exercises every day to increase their strength and manual dexterity, they will have had such a good beginning that they will be physically prepared for the demands of academic life. They will be able to write more clearly and more quickly and will have made far more connections in their brains than their couch potato cousins.

Who would have believed that developing muscles in infant school could affect your performance in GCSE?