PE just as I remember it. What a shame.

DD left school this year. PE was well run, she was setted as 'bottom' set in yr 7 and stayed there. There were also intermediate and top sets. The bottom set did active things that were also fun, by yrs 10 and 11 there were lots of lessons where they did just dance or capture the flag. And lots of badminton and rounders in the summer. Teachers were encouraging. DD enjoyed it.

I was quite impressed at one of the secondary open days I went to where the pe teacher said that some of the girls will always hate team sports and she’s not there to persuade them otherwise but to help them find something they like and will keep them active so there seemed to be options around yoga, walking, Zumba etc as well as the team sports. How true that is in practice I can’t say but I do really hope not all have the experience of the OP’s daughter.

@ricecrispietrail
This thread is 11 years old , i suspect OP Is long gone!

@EverythingUnderControl my trauma memories of PE include the nasty teacher asking me in front of the whole class whether I had my period because my mum's note said I was "unwell" (in my mum's experience, that was code for women's issues - no further detail required). I also remember being sent out on a 500m run "round the block" on a cold day, coming last, and wheezing badly. It was the first time I'd ever had to do this and we had no preparation for it. The teacher asked "do you have asthma?". I said I didn't know and she laughed at me - so the other kids laughed at me too. (I later found out that exercise-induced asthma is a thing).

These days, I'm a school governor. To manage the teacher shortages that all schools are experiencing, our PE teachers are recruited on the basis that they can teach another subject too, especially maths or science. This is very common now, because there is an over-supply of wannabe PE teachers and an undersupply in other subject areas. I wonder if it will change the nature of PE teachers over time - hopefully for the better.

Thread is 11 years old

I totally agree that the current emphasis on team sports and competition in PE lessons is totally out dated and just an excuse for bullying the less popular kids (even those that excel at sports outside of school).

my daughter has just started secondary school and I was so disappointed to find out that PE has changed at all since my school days.

I thought this approach went out with the Charleston! I was always picked towards the end for hockey and netball. I never minded much, though and endeavoured to play on the wing where I could run up and down a lot but generally not have to have anything to do with the ball. Imagine everyone's surprise, though, when I turned out to be REALLY good at badminton -- which I still play today. My DCs, though both active, hate team sports. There must be another way to teach PE.

I totally agree bigbluebus, in the PE lessons I did and my DCs do I see little thought to teaching skills which will stay with students outside of school. How many adults play teams sports once their school days are over? Some do but the majority do not.

The idea that children should have at least 2hrs PE a week in schools so that they get exercise backfires in later life for many and defeats the object - in a similar way to the fact that warm or frozen bottles of school milk when I was in the infants has meant that I have never drunk milk since.

My DS hated PE even in Primary school as he has ASD and just didn't get the point of many of the sports or the rules. At Secondary school, being subjected to team games such as football and rugby was his idea of hell on earth. But we encouraged him to take up sports that he could enjoy outside of school (swimming, climbing, karate, gym, running - not all at the same time though) and I used to make a point of seeing the PE teacher at parents evening to listen to the tirade of "littlebus stands with his hands in his pockets on the football field" and other such comments and then I would launch into all DSs achievements in sport from outside school.

Whilst I don't think he experienced being deliberately left out like OPs DD, PE lessons were not an enjoyable experience for DS or indeed many others in his class. If this Government wants the nation to get exercising and stay fit and healthy, they need to rethink the whole way that PE lessons are delivered in this country, instead of putting thousands off for life.

I think the problem is that in many schools PE is simply a tick box subject. It isnt valued so poor teaching practice is allowed to remain.

You can see that this is the case simply by the inconsistency in provision. If it were valued then there would be far more consistency in approach.

My school's approach to PE was all to do with producing teams to represent the school. It was all about the aggrandisement of the school and nothing to do with the individual students. Students who were good at sport brought honour to the school everyone else was forgettable in terms of sport.

My dd was saying they do the team picking and she was picked last just the other day. (She is in Y5 at primary school.)

I read your OP with some as you describe exactly what I remember, but I was just resigned to it before I even started, I guess. I was fairly sporty at the outset (fast runner, bit discoordinated for anything else) and completely disinclined to get sweaty for anything by the end. I'm pleased DD has dance as part of PE, cos that I always carried on loving, even if DD tells me I am too old to be cool doing it! I would hate to think of DD feeling like this though, especially if it put her off exercise in life generally, but I do think it has to stay on the timetable or they'd just spend their whole time sitting. I will keep an eye on things (new school, no idea if it's like that or not)

Gosh it's not all like that now. The Dds school has a huge range of kids from future Olympic hopefuls to ,well my Dds who gave their mother and fathers poor ability in sport (ESP the eldest)

BUT the girls tolerated PE and made progress though attainment stubbornly below average - we can understand that- it's a statistic. AND eldest spent several terms going to gym club where the ever patient teacher tried to get her to do a forward roll. She never managed it, but still wanted to go and keep trying. (obv they did other things too!)

Sorry ILoveAFullFridge, I got your username wrong in my post, but I still love what you wrote

I very much hated pe at school for the reasons already mentioned. Although I wasn't to bad at hockey and fairly good at swimming. I'm really hoping that when dd starts getting involved in pe, her classes are like the ones you've described ilovehotfudge. They sound wonderful. I don't know how dd will be at pe/sports yet, as she's only 18 months old. Although she would A*/gold medal in any climbing event

My PE lessons were just like that at school, your poor daughter. Is it worth talking to the school?

Lots of school do it better than that, OP.

DS1's school has streams chosen by the child themselves -- so you can do 'team' (competitive) stream if you like, or 'strength' (gym, rowing and salsa, weirdly), or 'adventure' (cycling, climbing and parkour).

DD's school seems to feature swimming and frisbee rather a lot, though I believe it has strong rugby teams for the (ahem) more athletic.

I've never understood why PE in schools is mainly about teaching sports like rugby or hockey or whatever. If a kid is interested in those, let them join a club after school or something.

I reckon PE in school should be more like aerobics or yoga or a Zumba class or Tai Chi.

Well, that's what I would have liked anyway. Maybe then I wouldn't have skived off PE to go and watch Monty Python videos at my mate's house.

I remember the humiliation of always being the last one to be chosen for team games. It is so soul destroying and I am angry that some schools still do this.

Fortunately they set for PE at DD's school. She has joint problems, but because she is with people of similar ability she enjoys PE rather than dreads it. In fact she is usually in the top group of her set so it is a massive confidence boost.

Can you email the head of the PE department?

Same in Edinburgh, load of bollocks. Why don't they learn?

Dcs school set as well and they get to chose a pathway which is 3 different sports over 3 terms. The could do even do golf, plenty of choice for the less sporty. Neither of my two were into team sports ,but somehow my dd ended up on the girls rugby team. Neither ever complained about PE so i suspect the school have got it right.

I am so sorry your school is like that; it makes me feel grateful that ours isn't. And then cross because gratitude shouldn't come into it - all schools should be teaching effectively.

I think PE should stay on the curriculm - being there sends an important message about the importance of physical activity even when life (and the timetable) is full of other stuff.

But it won't do that if it includes things like the humiliating ritual that is pupils picking teams. Our school arranged the timetable so the whole year group goes out together; it's not exactly setting, but it does provide for flexible ability grouping. And teams are allocated by the teachers.

We have similar. Have had some really lovely, fun teachers though, who don't do the whole pick your team and shouting stuff, but generally the whole system in our school of all being together for PE (especially as the school sets in other subjects) and the combination of activities (in the autumn term, netball and hockey, in the Easter term, 'fitness', in the summer term, rounders and fitness). Also hate the bleep test and other assessments where you essentially are performing in front of the whole class, while in most other subjects, you could hide the result if you wanted to.

Sets in dd's PE lesson too. There isn't the ritual humiliation of team picking.

However, in many ways her PE experience is similar to the OP's child. PE is a diet of netball, hockey and cross country, according to the season. Children don't get choice about what sports are done. Children go to the field in all weathers. My dd has a condition which means she cannot regulate her temperature well. If she gets too cold, then it's very hard to warm her up, but she still has to go to the field for 2 hrs a week. Tough when it's below freezing.