OUT with the old and in with the new – a St Albans secondary school swopped sports day for the Olympics recently.

In anticipation of the London 2012 Olympics, Verulam school hosted its first ever Verulympics on Tuesday and encouraged all pupils to take part in traditionally less-popular Olympic sports such as archery, fencing and trampolining.

A concept formulated by Verulam’s PE department, Verulympics saw a total of 15 events – including the usual track and field events – take place on the school site and local club coaches including two from St Albans bowling club were on hand to teach the pupils the tricks of their trade.

Head of PE Paul O’Connor, who has been at the school for 16 years, said that Verulam came up with the idea just weeks before the Government announced a new initiative encouraging all schools to run their own Olympic games in the run up to 2012.

He added: “Verulam is very proud to be ahead of the game, and we had a very successful day. The indoor rowing was one of the highlights. We’ve got a great piece of software which allows us to transform each competitor into a virtual rower, who is projected up onto a big screen. Everyone had fun and we will definitely be hosting Verulympics 2011 next year.”