Video transcript for Drill

[Music]

Dianne Robertson: Very good work today. I think it will be time for our fitness session. I want you to stand behind your desks now, stand behind your bench seats and you can push together, together, push them, the whole bench in. Well done. Well done, boys and girls. Now, I’m going to take you outside, but ladies you are going first, ladies before gentlemen. Ladies you’re going to follow me out of the room and gentlemen would you follow? Daniel, as soon as you see the last lady walk past, please come along. Well, drill was the form of a fitness program. It was introduced because the inspector who visited the schools from time to time noticed the children were a bit disorderly and in order to settle the children this idea was adopted. It was originated from the British Army that the children were to do this fitness program two or three times a week and that would settle them so that they would be more focused when they came into the classroom. In drill they were taught a variety of exercises, it was a set sequence and regardless of the sequence the children may have had a different piece of equipment according to their age. So the younger children would have used dumbbells, hand held dumb bells. And you might notice that they’re made of wood. The other piece of equipment that is used is called a ‘wand’. This is also made of wood. And third, the Indian clubs, they were very popular. They were also another wooden item. Those items were used in a variety of exercises. And if your group of students were really, really quite polished they may have even had an opportunity to join the combined school’s display. So, that was always … if not though there’s always the opportunity to perform the drill on say Empire Day, Arbour Day, Wattle Day. All of those special days that used to be celebrated and some still are.