Name changed as possibly outing.
DD is in last year of primary. The school she goes to does an enormous performance once a year where only the year 6s act. The kids wait their entire school career to get parts in this play and are inevitably very excited once it’s their chance to perform. The school take this very seriously, and see it as a broader learning experience for the children. It’s a massive undertaking involving elabarote costumes made by parents and impressive props etc. and lasts for up to two hours.
School send home audition scripts with a letter to practice for the auditions. This is mandatory. DD is not the type you would automatically imagine as being on stage but she put in a huge amount of work to audition and as far as I could tell from our rehearsals, was objectively good. In the play there are main parts, medium parts and small parts. DD was very disappointed in the small part she was given. My opinion was C’est la vie, not everyone can get big parts at least you tried your best etc, although obviously slightly disappointed on her behalf.
The school spends over a month rehearsing.
DD has spent this entire month miserable and down right upset. Primarily because she’s bored out of her mind having spent a month waiting around having to watch those with bigger parts perform whilst only having one or two lines herself, and her confidence has slowly ebbed away. But also because it’s been so hyped up, she’s been in tears nearly every bedtime about how this was the one chance she had to perform and she’s only got two lines.
Shes a really resilient kid already. She rolls with every punch going. She puts herself forward for things and doesn’t get them all the time with no complaints. Obviously we make sure we talk to her about how she can find enjoyment out of this, or at least some positives to take away.
The school talk about how this experience builds kids up and teaches them all sort of skills like being able to deal with setbacks. I agree that’s a great thing to teach, but in DDs case all it’s seem to have done is destroy her confidence. But DD has talked about feeling judged by the teachers and how they only care about the kids with the big parts. I’ve started to feel incredibly resentful towards the school. I don’t give a fig about the school performance, or how big my child’s part is. What I do care about is how this has knocked her confidence so much.
AIBU to speak with the school and expect them to do some work to put right some of what they’ve undone.