Is skipping dying out? That was the question posed by health experts in 1973. The answer in some Oxford schools was: definitely not.

And as these pictures show, girls – and one boy – at West Oxford Primary School turned out to provide the proof.

National research had claimed that Britain’s schoolchildren were unfit and took no regular exercise.

That had led to the British Heart Foundation, with the Co-op, launching a campaign to revive interest in skipping in schools as a way of preventing heart disease in later life. But teachers in Oxford discounted fears that skipping was a dying playground game.

They said the skipping rope was still a favourite among younger schoolchildren, while older and more health conscious pupils had taken up skipping as part of their exercise programmes.

Gordon Norris, head of New Marston Primary School, said skipping had always been popular.

He said: “The children have been doing it for years – and they still do. We don’t have to encourage them – last term, some of the children were skipping up to 150 times.”

Other schools reported that children made up their own skipping rhymes which they chanted out loud when playing.

Jean Bowley, of New Hinksey School, took a group of schoolchildren regularly to Hinksey Park for skipping.

She said: “I am one of the rope turners and the children have invented all sorts of games where they count the number of times they can skip the rope, or they run in and out and underneath the turning rope.

“Skipping is certainly not dying out, especially among the eight and nine year olds – to them it is not a fitness exercise but something which they enjoy, but does them good too.”

Mike Jenkins, head of West Oxford Primary School, said skipping was a seasonal game, more popular in the playground during the summer than in the winter.

He said: “Like all games, it tends to go in cycles and if they are not skipping, they are doing other equally energetic games.”

The move to bring skipping back into fashion in the playground followed evidence that children were not exercising enough to keep their hearts healthy.

As part of the campaign, Jump Rope for Heart, 1,000 schools across the country were sent a box full of ropes and a manual for teachers explaining different skipping techniques.

Barry Leggetter, of the Co-op, which was jointly organising the campaign, said too many children were watching too much television and not exercising enough.

pAny memories of skipping in the school playground? And is it just as popular today? Write and let me know.