Should sports day be optional?

It was when I was a child. Parents, bothers, sisters. Sports days were on a Saturday with no compulsion to attend. Obviously, if you were actually participating there would have been a strong expectation that you would.

There are Dyspraxics and Dyslexics in every class.

Urgh, this use of language is awful. My eldest is not "a dyspraxic".

@LaCouleurDeMonCiel there are often mandatory tests in class though - quizzes or times tables or spellings where you have to answer in front or everyone, or read in front of the class out loud.

Sports Day is once a year, the other things are often weekly or even daily occurrences.

No problem in not being able to do something. The problem at school is the bullying, humiliation etc from the other pupils because so many schools/teachers have no control over the bullying etc.

One of my most treasured memories is of my Mum taking me aside after sports day and telling me that my teacher could see a lot of potential in me. She was so proud and so was I. That the teacher had noticed and told my Mum.

I am one of 5 children. All dearly loved, but our moments to shine as individuals were few. That was mine.
I don't know if it's right or wrong and I speak as someone who has done very well in my sport, but I am very glad that it happened to me.

This old crap. Sports day isn’t the only chance to build resilience you know.

My daughter faced things every day that she didn’t like. Attending sports day once a year wouldn’t have made any difference to her level of resilience.

My son occasionally asked for a day off school to avoid some random, pointless drama lesson. It hasn’t impacted his resilience.

Correct! Students should not be tested for anything in front of the whole school and hundreds of spectators.

It's counter productive. Fat children are less likely to exercise and get involved with sports if they're ridiculed and bullied when they do. It becomes a vicious circle. I speak from experience.

I was a fat child and hated games/sports because of the bullying etc. It certainly didn't encourage me to do more. It just encouraged me to bunk off, feign illness, etc to avoid the ritual humiliation.

Luckily there was one teacher who actually had compassion and understood. One thing I could do was swim. We did swimming for half a term and then did other things for the other half terms. This particular teacher could see I struggled, and asked me if I'd like to swim for other half terms too! I jumped at the chance and ended up gaining various swimming certificates etc.

Once I'd left school, and met my partner who was quite active, so we started doing lots of things together, i.e. walking, cycling, swimming, tennis & squash, skiing and then golf as we got a bit older, so I became pretty active and pretty good at some sports, but never team sports. Funny how I became more active and engaged with being active and some sports once I'd escaped the horrible bullying atmosphere of "team sports" at school!

Poor comparison. Opting out of sports day isn't opting out of PE entirely. There's no direct equivalent for STEM of sports day.

What @Lemonyyy said

FFS I can’t believe that while I was writing one more person made the point that other subjects are mandatory!
@Gruffallowhydidntyouknow : is there a yearly mandatory STEM test in front of the whole school + parents? Because this is the equivalent of sports day!
Nobody is saying pupils shouldn’t do PE, just not the public performance at the end of the year.

I dread it for my son! He’s currently practicing for his in PE and has been dreading it since the last one in June. He’s the youngest/smallest in his year and came last. The teachers said he was absolutely fine in practice and really enjoyed it but the sound of the parents screaming and clapping on the day, and the ‘awww’ sound of feeling sorry for him devastated him.

Some children can run quicker, some count better. Some have illegible handwriting. There are Dyspraxics and Dyslexics in every class.

You learn how to cope with not wanting to do something. This is why the mental health of children is so weak now. We have the mindset of not doing things that are difficult or uncomfortable or that natural anxiety
/ nerves is problematic and to be avoided. How about building children up to cope, not removing them from anything they are a bit worried about.

It may not be in front of parents but it's often in front of the entire class (or school if it's assembly based).

MN is very anti sports day in general though and I do wonder if it's because it's primarily made up of intelligent middle class women who hated PE growing up.

If they had been on the side of those who struggled academically every single day, maybe they'd see things a bit differently.

Oh and secondary school sports days aren't a thing in my part of Scotland. Certainly not as a whole school, everyone participates like it or not sort of thing.

I think what actually needs addressing here is why children feel bad for coming “last” and in doing so start taking the feeling that they shouldn’t do things if they’re not good at them into adulthood. I’m about to run a 10k race at the weekend and the idea of me winning is laughable but that’s not why I’ll be there! Equally, two of my kids recently participated in a fun kids triathlon. They both came in the bottom 10th for their age group but they had a ball and I am so proud of them for taking on a personal challenge and completing it, and they don’t care about their times just that they had fun and they did it!

We need to teach our children to enjoy doing sport as and end in and of itself, not just to win. I think the suggestions for a wider range of activities, and also the poster above who said they split the day with fun non competitive activities in the morning for everyone, then a more competitive optional set of races in the afternoon, would be moving in a better direction. Sports day should be contributing to this goal, whilst also providing a challenge for those kids who are more sporty.

Well there kind of is because it’s common knowledge who is in the bottom / lower sets & therefore doing foundation papers.

Yes, they "can", but lots don't. That's the problem. Some schools still have the brutal "wait of shame" when team leaders select their team for football, rugby, rounders, hockey etc., which is surely only designed specifically to humiliate the kids who are chosen last! If the school/games teacher can't organise things to avoid the bullying/humiliation, then they shouldn't be doing it at all!

I remember dreading maths lessons in school and even faking illness to try and get out of it.

I couldn't opt out because I struggled 🤷‍♀️

That's how some kids feel about maths lessons all the time, or French, or music, or science. No, it shouldn't be optional
Nobody is saying PE lessons should be optional, did you really not get that?
But are all pupils asked to do a math quizz and spelling bee in front of the whole school + parents? Because that would be the equivalent of sports day…

At my kids school they are not humiliated, ridiculed or bullied for it. Its a friendly and supportive atmosphere.

Only is STEM subjects can also be optional. We have far too many fat children without them opting out of sports too.

No, as schools can easily develop models of inclusive sports days. When my kids were at primary school they competed in "houses", every race was a relay of some sort, mixed boys and girls. No individual races, and even if a child came last in the obstacle race or something it didn't mean they were particularly weak, just that the team wasn't great.

I don't think it should be optional as there is an important life lesson about joining in and overcoming something that makes you anxious.

But I think parents should be uninvited. The parent behaviour at our school on sports day is somewhere between loud and obnoxious. I'm hardly surprised that the 4 and 5 year olds, some of whom have special needs, are frightened to run past that yelling mob! (I also notice GPs are typically sitting on their deck chairs looking bemused at us "adults")