[West Ender]

Twenty minutes a day exercising in lesson time? That is ludicrous. Far better to ban parking within 200 yards of the school, to discourage the idle parents and children who won't walk that far, and have compulsary games lessons.

In the ''bad old days'' of discipline, when I was at Primary School not long after the war, we had to line up in the playground to march into school at the end of each break. This march was often preceded by 2 minutes of star-jumps or toe-touching, instigated by ex-service teachers who believed in fitness. P E lessons often consisted of ''drill'', quick-marching, running-on-the-spot etc., or running and jumping round the draughty hall, and we had games twice a week. Playtime was outside in all weathers and if kids hung around, inactive, they were made to run a circuit of the playground by the teacher on duty.

All that activity, combined with a fairly austere diet due to rationing (''Eat your greens or you'll go hungry'') and the lack of private transport so you had to walk to school, meant there was little obesity.