To win just once

IT IS A COLD, grey morning in Dublin, and the CBS in Crumlin has a business-like air about it. The corridors are empty. The yard is deserted, but inside the classes are in full session.

Grainne Conlon comes out of the staffroom wearing a light blue track-suit, a pair of runners and a smile. She exudes vitality and go9d humour. She is the PE teacher in this boys' secondary school.

"This is quite a sporty school," she explains. "I've no problems motivating them and the staff is great. Other teachers do work after school with football and soccer teams. I do basketball and athletics.

"So many of the students here are good at sport. It sticks out here if (as in the case of weaker students) you're not co-ordinated. With help, those kids see a huge improvement in themselves, and they are so delighted," she says.

She teaches a subject for which motivation is not generally a problem. In fact, Conlon's greatest challenge as a PE teacher is to teach her students "not to be overly competitive".

Boys, she says, are naturally more inclined to compete, but the idea in her PE classes is that "you have to be able to control yourself.

"There are always rules in society. If somebody does make a decision that you don't like, you have to abide by that rule. It's a very good way for preparing people for life. I also try to encourage people to play with someone who isn't as good as them.

THIS IS Grainne Conlon's fourth year teaching at Crumlin CBS. Her training at Thomond College, which is now part of the University of Limerick, was responsible for giving her this approach to sport. "I was competitive myself, but from day one of the degree course you are learning skills and how to teach those skills."

Her interest in sport stems from her family, she says. Conlon grew up in Mountmellick, Co Laois, in a household characterised by enthusiasm for all sorts of games and an area with good facilities, she says. All through school she had one aim, which was to get into Thomond College. "I had to work very hard for my Leaving Cert, and that was the hardest year because I had to cut down on my sport."

Demand for places at Thomond was very high that year (1988). About 700 were interviewed, and only 22 were chosen. What made her part of that select group? She believes it was "definitely confidence" that was the key to her success.

"I did my thesis on the relationship between self-esteem and sport," she continues. The value of having this kind of confidence is particularly relevant, she says, in a school in Crumlin, which is a fairly deprived area of Dublin city with a high level of unemployment.

Conlon is actually qualified to teach maths, too; but PE's demands on her time mean she has no maths classes.

Sport is particularly important to students in the Crumlin school, she says. "I think people involved in sport have a higher self-esteem. I think it's so important to get involved in sport. It's one way of achieving success.

"It's also an important outlet. Other schools don't have PE after Junior Cert. Our principal (a former PE teacher) is in favour of everybody being involved in sport."

Her students respond to enthusiasm and honest talking. Many of them are in sports clubs outside of school and train after school. They take their sport seriously.

They accept and understand, however, that PE classes are not special training sessions, she says. "Once you say that to them, they are great. It very much depends on the way you say it to them."