Fecking sports day

Also there's another element of this....kids sports days being filmed and uploaded to SM for all to see. Not just the winners but those coming in last. Online forever as a memory.

I was that child so yes i do understand. To make it worse i had an older brother who was the elite runner who came home from school sports day with a folder full of certificates. Imagine your first year at secondary school and going to your first PE class and the teacher comes up to you and mentions your brothers name and sporting ability. Imagine how that made me feel. I could either sink and quit or stand up and improve.

It isn’t just one day though. It’s weeks of anxiety before and after the event. Unless you have a child who struggles in this way you won’t understand how much of an impact it has.

Schools need to review how they run sports day and acknowledge that changes need to be made to support all children to take part. This could include getting children to help with the running of the day without having to take part in the events themselves.

I was similar. I didnt get in the school teams and i would get similar treatment when teams were picked.

I went home crying about it, i remember my dads response. He didnt write me a note. He didnt complain to the school. He asked me what i wanted to do about it. I spent an entire summer holidays running and getting fit. I joined as many sports clubs as i could and my dad, bless him, took me to every single one of them. He spent hours on the school field with me as i practiced.

I ended up in every school team on merit. When school sports day came about i was chosen for most of the distance events. I didnt ever win as i didnt have natural talent but i became extremely good at my chosen sport and left most of the sporty children behind over the years.

The biggest lesson i got from it was that just because i wasnt naturally good at something didnt mean i couldnt get better with practice and effort. It stuck with me in later life too. I got a bit overweight whilst my family were growing up. Eventually i got sick of looking at myself and engaged my younger spirit to take up a sport i had never done before. 2 years down the line i have lost 25kg, am full of muscle and can hold my own in a boxing ring.

Thank god my dad didnt write me a note to get me out of sports day.

I worry how they will fare in the work place in a few years. Already now we have young people who refuse to take on any task given to them if they feel it's out of their comfort zone and who have to take regular mental health duvet days. What if trainee doctors or nursing students acted that way or any range of professionals who society depends on?

The only good thing about going to a school that’s still 70% closed due to RAAC (which NO NEWS Channel or the Government is talking about!) is that there’s been no sports day. In your shoes I’d keep her off school.

I loathed sports day when I was at school for all the reasons cited above. Then, when I was a teacher, I resented being forced to attend and be a lines person or whatever at school sports day. No other subject made other teachers join in their subject for the day.

Absolutely. What message are we sending to our children if every time they are asked to do something they dont want to, is out of their comfort zone or they arent very good at they get a note from mummy excusing them. Life brings challenges that we are not all going to find easy. Its an important skill to be able to cope under these circumstances.

Will mummy do that when they in the working environment?

I love this!

My high school PE teacher watched the class treat me like shit every lesson and did FA about it. Every time it came to pick a team i was always picked last That wasnt the worst of it The two teams actually argued with each other saying "you have Jennifer We had her last time" Moaned constantly at me even though i was trying my best. THEN had the gall to come to me and ask me to make up the numbers for Sports Day. I reminded them of the way they treated me and pointed out they would just moan at me if i wasnt fast enough They swore they wouldnt I didnt believe them. Would YOU!! If i had believed them it would have been similar to a woman believing an abusive partner when he says hes changed. So THATS why i told them to shove it. You and others talk about resiliance and learning not to duck out of things. Well what about SELF RESPECT. Because the way to keep mine was to say no. I could not have respected myself if i had said yes!!!!

Its one event per year where maybe some kids who arent academic get to show things they are good at. If someone is good at maths should we make sure they dont get to answer questions in class in case it upsets the children who dont know the answers

Unless the parents of the other kids are there watching its not the same

For those saying you shouldn’t let kids opt out of things they don’t like, or what about the kids allowed to shine in other subjects, surely it’s completely different in front of crowds of parents and peers staring at you? Even if they are only interested in their own child, that isn’t really how it feels.

You are absolutely right. I hated sport thanks to the way my secondary school taught PE. It was mixed and we were forced to play football and rugby (which I know lots of women love) but the boys didn’t want us to join in and played the game amongst themselves and we were then berated for not joining in. Had we been able to select the activities we wanted to do (and made them more interesting) I don’t think I’d have developed the hatred for organised sports i currently have!

I also agree with a pp who said that many sports teachers don’t understand kids who aren’t sporty and think they just aren’t trying hard enough.

I think some schools could be more inclusive and work harder to make it an event for everyone.

But I do wonder what sort of message it teaches kids when you tell them anything they don't like or want to participate in they can just bail. It just encourages them that the world should be all about them and not about what other people might want.

What sort of lesson is it for future life when you are led to believe you can bail out on anything you don't like ?

Yes it probably won't hurt that much for them to miss one day per year. But OTOH it won't hurt them that much to put up with a single day of stuff they don't like.

Far better for them to learn how to turn something they don't like into a positive than just learn they can avoid stuff.

I would be far more interested in writing a note to a teacher asking them if they could be more inclusive and involve more kids in organising/other events and make suggestions for alternative things associated with it than writing out sick notes.

Sports day was basically voluntary from what I remember of my own secondary school days. Are you sure she HAS to do something?
Although I do remember a similarly-unsporty mate getting recruited into the javelin in about Year 10, but by that age, you're old enough to just take it on the chin.

Personally, I think by the time kids are secondary age, they are old enough to go "fuck this" at something completely unimportant, that they've no interest or skill in. I see nothing wrong with a once-yearly mental health day in this case. Assuming she's otherwise a sensible hard worker.

hook a duck and cake for the non sporty, genius idea!

My boys high school do it but only those who want to compete (or who are good at sport, so made to, it seems) have to do it. Everyone else watches and they have face painting and hook a duck plus cake stalls and it’s more of a festival than just the sports.

Don't worry. she doesn't come first in anything (PE or any other subject) 🙄
That's brilliant! You have nothing to worry about then 😉

Its one event per year where maybe some kids who arent academic get to show things they are good at. If someone is good at maths should we make sure they dont get to answer questions in class in case it upsets the children who dont know the answers?

We live in a world full of diverse characters, interests, abilities and issues. Why are we attacking something that in the grand scheme of things is a benefit to most? I remember my DS & DD sports days and the of the biggest smiles were from non sporty children taking part and being cheered on by their schoolmates. For those who try to compete, winning and trying are not dirty words.

For all the rest, grow some backbone and stop teaching your children to quit.

Gawd this takes me back.

the ironic thing is as an adult I’ve found that I love sport. I run, cycle, swim and gym. But it took me years to find it out. School PE utterly shattered my self esteem. It was awful.

My daughter participated in CC during Year 5 and 6 and often came last. We used this opportunity to help her understand that it’s okay not to be first or even in the middle. We wanted her to see the bigger picture, for example, other participants were a lot more developed and tall and some had really professional gear, some were training every day or part of an athletics club. We wanted her to learn to cope with experiences that weren’t ideal or as she had hoped. At that age, it’s important to experience challenges, where you're not always the best or at the top.

It's part of growing up. Children and young people need to be able to handle situations where they don’t come first or achieve perfection. We were proud that she finished the CC race, as it can be tough when others overtake you or even push you out of the way at the start line. Not always being the best or succeeding builds character. It’s good to learn resilience and learning to keep going, than strive to be flawless and perfect and not even give it a go.

The most heartbreaking thing I had yo watch was my daughter humiliated at sports day when she was in year 5 and the biggest in her year, they did a "cross country" where as a class they all ran across the large field it was held in. She was of course miles behind everyone and took ages to finish. She had been happy to participate in sports day but I wish I'd had the foresight to keep her off. BTW she's lost loads of weight and is slim now but I still feel bad remembering this

Just keep them at home for that day - that's what I used to do! Mine hated it at school but they are in their twenties now and actually love sport/exercise now they've left school. So it makes no difference to how active they are when older. I never let mine skip anything academic, but for sports day I just kept them off.