Forget Rugby, Pupils Prefer 'buzz' Sports

Pupils are learning how to surf, rock climb and even perform BMX biking tricks as part of a move to tackle disenchantment with traditional school sports such as rugby, swimming and cross-country running.

Schools, worried that so many students give up all physical exercise at 16, hope that offering newer, adrenaline-fuelled pursuits will encourage teenagers to stay active.

The number of teenagers taking part in long-established team games such as cricket, rounders and basketball is falling, official figures show. While many of these refuseniks become idle 'couch potatoes' or stick to sedentary activities such as computer games, others are happy to get sweaty while doing more exciting and individualistic sports.

Hackney Free and Parochial School in east London spent £42,000 installing a climbing wall last December to help motivate pupils who wanted a fresh sort of challenge.

'It's something different, pupils have responded and it has increased participation in PE lessons by five to 10 per cent', said Adrian Mullis, the school's director of sport. 'Our 15- and 16-year-olds use it both in games classes and after school. They like the challenge, adrenaline rush and sense of achievement when they get to the top of the wall.'

The school still offers games such as football and netball, but it also lays on orienteering and mountain biking sessions.

'We hope that by offering imaginative activities we will address the massive rates of drop-off from sport', said Mullis.

In Cornwall and Devon, 10 secondary schools have set up 'surf clubs' where teachers who have qualified as surfing coaches act as instructors.

Joanne Hillman of the British Surfing Association, said: 'Surfing is growing rapidly in popularity in schools. Kids come across it, like in adverts on TV, think it's exciting and decide to try it. They like the lifestyle that goes with it, the element of danger and that it's now very "street". There's a definite change now where kids want to do more extreme sports.'

More and more 'grommet clubs' - 'grommet' is surfing slang for a young participant - are being set up to offer weekend lessons to enthusiasts under 16 in Kent, Wales, Newcastle and Scotland, as well as the sport's heartland in the south-west.

In Sutton, south London, Carshalton Boys' School has taken soccer out of its PE curriculum altogether and replaced it with Australian Rules football.

'About 500 pupils have done it so far, and around 30 per cent of them are those who are the shyer, less confident and more unfit', said Paul Avery, the school's head of sport. 'Pupils like the fact that because it's new, no one here has played it before, everyone is equal and there is no hierarchy.'

The school uses a modified, less physical version of a game notorious for its tough tackling and all-round aggression, called 'touch Aussie Rules', where a pupil must release the ball as soon as they are touched by an opponent.

A growing number of schools are even embracing cheerleading, that quintessentially American activity, to get girls more involved in sport.

Roger Draper, chief executive of Sport England, said: 'Research shows that kids want to experience danger but in a safe environment because they feel that danger is being stripped out of their everyday lives. More schools are installing climbing walls, BMX cycle trails and skateparks because they realise that the wider variety of sports, the more pupils will take part.'.