The Autumn term has a neatness about it for the Games Programmes of most independent schools. Boys play a form of football (the Rugby code for the majority) and girls play Hockey. It has worked pretty well for a hundred years. It might be under a bit of threat from the growing Rugby Refuser Pacifist Lobby, but for the majority of pupils in the majority of schools, it provides a clear and logical programme, and gets through to Christmas pretty satisfactorily.

Then it gets messy. Returning after Festive excesses to short, cold days, weather disruption, general malaise...

It's cold, wet and the playing fields are muddy. The wind whistles across direct from the Russian Steppes, and teachers assemble their biggest collection of coats, hats and gloves.

Adults who exercise regularly take refuge in the gym, and runners find machines in warm rooms, with the diversion of TV in front of them.

It's that time of year. It must be time to inculcate a love of running in children of all ages. Given that a small minority of teenage children would confess to loving running, clearly there is a task of engagement lying...

"If exercise came in pill form, it would be plastered across the front page, hailed as the blockbuster drug of the century". Ratey and Hagerman

Schools have often implied a link between academic performance and physical activity. Every summer term, the debate rages as to whether playing summer sports enhances or impedes exam performance. Missing lessons for sports fixtures is one of the all-time leaders of intra colleague friction.

Given this, it is perhaps surprising that the abundant science is not leveraged to...