Boys and girls doing different sports in PE

I find the set-up you describe (which based on the responses seems typical for the UK?) a bit odd: getting kids to specialise and compete in specific sports through school, and if they want to try something else they need to join a club, even though they might realise after 3 sessions they don't actually enjoy it.

Where I am from it is the exact opposite: PE is for trying out a broad range of sports, and if there is a specific one you enjoy, you join a club and compete that way against other kids.

It meant that all kids did all sports in PE, from rugby to dance/aerobics.

I did (contact) rugby at school in the nineties. I wasn't that keen myself but there were enough that were to make a team and they played in a north west school girls league. So I think it's just prejudice that says "oh girls must hate it". Girls that like sport will give rugby a go, girls who are put off by sport probably don't really like anything. In my case it was periods, poor toilet and changing facilities and impractical uniform that were the main barriers. I did enjoy hockey, tennis and basketball though.

Rugby often results in quite serious injuries for boys, but somehow it’s alright for them to play if they want 🙄.

Dear lord it’s 2025 and girls’ choices are still being constrained by assumptions about their fragility.

Have you watched the Olympics? Male gymnasts and hockey players, women footballers, it's just crazy!

Seems stupid. There are loads of girls / women’s rugby teams. YANBU at all.

Are their sports for girls they prevent boys doing?

Go and read the OP again .... I would imagine there's a lot more boys playing hockey and girls playing football than there are either sailing or horse riding

Yanbu. Our daughter at a state school played the same sports as boys (with girls, not mixed) she enjoyed rugby. It's certainly worth saying to the school that it's disappointing she isn't able to try it. Having said that I've always told my kids that school can't give them all the experiences they want so they have to look elsewhere sometimes. My daughter did drama outside school because it wasn't provided in school. As a pp suggested, maybe look to a rugby club for somewhere she can try it out.

A lot of the time it's based on which competitions they enter. They'll often prioritise - particularly top set - around what the schedule is. If they haven't entered any girls rugby competitions they may not prioritise it. It's all around league tables. Sports too.

How Sport works at DDs school (State).
Half the year (about 100 children) have PE at a time. Split into boys and girls, then halved into two groups.
Each group does each sport for about 5 weeks, 2 lessons a week. The sports vary a lot, but they do the same ones, just at different times. Netball, basketball, cricket, athletics, fitness circuits, yoga, badminton, rugby, tennis, football, hockey, table tennis... (it varies according to weather and access to gyms, they can't do inside sports during GCSEs for example). Its about trying g different sports.

Then if they further interest, they join a club after school.

They do have a Girls rugby team. Its actually run by an English teacher who herself plays, rather than a PE teacher.

In lessons, they don't do direct contact... but do use tackle bags. Its apparently a very popular lesson even with non sporty girls as they can let go a bit!

My main issue with school rugby is the safety concerns from having non specialist coaches.

Lots of boys are quite interested in netball, but that would be easily resolved by playing Korfball (which plays with mixed teams) or basketball.

But it would mean changing a rotation from netball or hockey, to rugby. In reality, the majority of girls would prefer to play netball or hockey and these will be the sports they can find opposing, girls teams for. Plus I think you’d get far more parent complaints if they suddenly announced all girls were going to be dropping netball or hockey for a term to play rugby. It’s a small school - 80 in the year. You need to field a squad of c.20 for rugby, so half the girls in the year (assuming a 50/50 split) would need to be up for playing rugby.

I don't think that's so true anymore (I live in the USA) but I do think it's regional. High school football isn't as dominant here. What my state is known for is lacrosse.

And England's women's rugby team is #1 ranked! Of course girls should get a chance. Touch rugby is a good start to learn the game (though here, again, university teams and above definitely tackle. My eldest's university has women's rugby and they hit hard.)

CTE and concussions are a big topic here, so much so that there's a specialist concussion programme at the University of Pittsburgh that's supposedly the best in the world. (I'm not usually a "rah American healthcare is the best" person by the way but when your sports medicine department is partly funded by the Steelers and the Penguins, and some very famous people travelled there from other countries, I have to think there might be something to it!) Interestingly they think ice hockey and American football may be worse than rugby because all the safety equipment encourages players to hit harder. Players have been donating their brains to research after they die, and the autopsy findings are horrifying. I wouldn't have let my children play American football.

The problem is when kids start ‘trying out’ more sports, they spend less time on the ones they compete in and they do badly at fixtures.

It’s how private schools work and why some kids get scholarships. Just sign her up for a club. I would complain if my daughter was made to do rugby!

If they can find time to do it with boys, they can find time to do it with girls, unless of course they think girls are less than and so not worth as much time or effort.

It's a private school and yes they can do sports on rotation and do everything. That's what the OP signed up for.

I went to a not so nice state school in the 80s and 90s it was all girls and we did all sports.

Netball, tennis, rugby, hockey, cross country and we had a pool so the dreaded swimming and showers. Complete with Pervy female PE teachers.

I loved the fact we got to do everything it really set me up for understanding when I left my all girls bubble how bloody sexist the world was, we also did woodwork, DT etc and not just the needlework.

Our local boys school played hockey and netball, so we used to meet up for mixed matches.

If DD was my daughter and I was paying for her school I would 100% expect her to be playing all sports, regardless of her gender.

I'd be the mum kicking up a stink about how dated and sexist the approach to sports is, we don't have enough sports women as it is.

Do they keep the girls away from the free weights in the gym as well?

So yes OP id be pissed off and it snot even a question I would have asked at enrolling I would have assumed all sports were for all students.

Football/soccer is another that, in the US at least, is often considered a "girls sport" (although slightly more boys play than girls).

Restrictions on a sex's access to sport are almost always cultural. I can't actually think of an exception.

My kids grew up in New Zealand.

DS and DD played rugby in mixed sex club teams until they were 12. When they were in y7 and y8 they also played in mixed school tournaments. There was also a girls only tournament. From y9 onwards, they both played for schools in single sex teams. Our province doesn't have club rugby for 13-18 year olds, other provinces do. DD had to be dispensated to play for an all girls school because her school couldn't field a team at u15 or u18 level.

My DS played in a mixed sex touch rugby team.

The school did have a couple of mixed netball teams but it was hard to find competition- most of the boys were stolen from the basketball team.

New Zealand and Australia both have men's netball teams. The Silver Ferns often play against the men's team to train for international matches. Silver Ferns usually lose to the men...

Can anyone point me to any studies that support the notion that girls shouldn't play contact sports? Can't seem to find anything that suggests a physical barrier, just cultural hangups and prejudice.

Lots of boys wanted to play Netball in my school (in place of rugby) at Y6. The first few to ask were accommodated (and played with the girls) but then the school put a stop to further "transfers" because more than half wanted to switch and they didn't have the staff to accommodate.

Find a girls rugby club to go to at weekends. Let the school do what they do without complaining.

I have 2 DC at a big independent school. It’s a huge rugby school. DS is Y11 and has played rugby in school and at a club since U6’s. DD is Y8 and also played rugby for a couple of years at DS’s club. School have tried several times to get girls rugby up and running, but there is so little demand they couldn’t pull a squad together nor find any fixtures.

In the end DD got fed up with rolling about in the mud and never doing anything other than training. She plays netball now, for school, club and county and much prefers it. It’s an absolutely vicious game at club and county level, requiring incredible fitness, speed and agility and not at all boring - the scores can easily be nudging up to 80-100 in a match and actually a much faster paced game than rugby. I’m all for girls playing rugby and thought it was a shame DD stopped, but if you want to find like minded girls for your DD to have a go, you’ll have far better luck at a local club.

What's stopping you sending her to rugby lessons outside of school, if she's so 'sporty'?

Scrum caps are traditionally more about protecting players’ ears in the scrum, and generally protecting heads from cuts and scrapes. I think evidence of efficacy against concussion is more mixed.

All of this. I did play rugby for a club (the only girl) till I had to move to the ladies team & at the time that meant moving from full contact to touch - so I stopped.

At school I kicked up such a stink about not being able to play rugby or football that the teacher got so sick of me she let me take a group off by myself to play during PE.

I did play netball too fwiw.

Out of curiosity, when the kids are split into their pink and blue sports, do the girls still have to wear gym-shorts (hot pants) & sports skirt (mini skirt)?