Sports Day for the non-sporty kids...is this fair?

Oh well, glad it was a passing annoyance and hope he has an enjoyable day.

Returning to the OPs post,must wondered what the outcome of all this has been Op.
Did you contact the school? How did you approach it and what was the response?

Plenty of schools opt out of proper arts ed. Why should PE be protected? Physical activity is important but not more so than culture. Team games are not important at all.

I don't think we are disagreeing.
We all seem to agree that some form of physical activity should be compulsory.
There is a range if provision. In some schools it is mostly sport and team based sport (secondary schools mostly like this) but there are many schools which offer a wide range. In my childrens school there are all the team sports I mentioned earlier, but also dance, swimming, outdoor adventure (high wires, low ropes etc) cross country as well as country dancing and plenty of drama.
So the issue isn't really if they should avoid PE (which Herc asked) and which I still think would be wrong, for the reasons above, but what PE should involve.
Agreed, that a wider range would be good. However, it should be recognised too that many get a lot out of team sports and for many those odd set a pattern for adult fitness and involvement. Herc seemed to suggest some kind of option to opt out. I disagree with that, however much we dislike the curriculum. We wouldn't opt out of Science because we don't like the topics and I see PE in the same way.

I agree with herc whilst physical activity is an essential part of the school curriculum, sport does not need to be.

It would be far preferable to give pupils a range of activities to choose from during PE which include team sports, individual sports and non-sporting physical activities like dance.

If we are serious about getting more people to see exercise as a part of their lives, it should always try to be as enjoyable as possible. All too often it is exclusionary and grim.

I think provision of sport varies a lot.
In my childrens previous school, they often did maypole dancing and actually no team based sport at all. They avoided anything competitive.
In their current school, they swim weekly, do gym, athletics, dance and also the team sports like hockey, netball, rugby, cricket, rounders.

Many children do not do any sporting activity outside school. So whilst the provision is not always good, I think it is important they should have some. And I don't think people should be allowed to opt out of lessons, be ause this would create a situation extremely difficult to manage.

I think school PE is very narrow and biased towards team sports (usually involving a ball). I think there are much better ways to make sort/physical activity a part of your life forever than forcing kids with no aptitude to lay team games requiring hand eye coordination. I spend half my life in the gym and I run half marathons. When I was at school I skived off PE almost the whole time (with the tacit consent of the PE staff). I'm dyspraxic and nothing they had to offer was any good for me. But I swam ran and walked throughout my school years. DD2 does at least 5 hours dance a week, outside school obviously. She also runs. But none of that activity counts as far as 'school PE' is concerned. At a time when school music and drama is being decimated (actually, worse than decimated, many schools are losing more than a tenth of their musical activities/capacity/spending) it seems bonkers to me that an increasing focus is being placed on the sort of PE that will not translate into life long fitness.

I think it is right that physical activity is part of the curriculum. It is of benefit for children. We would not let them opt out of English and they should not be allowed to opt out of Sport of some sort. Clearly some like it more than others and opt into clubs, teams etc. Sports Day MIT be seen like this. However, I think some sport should be compulsory for all.
Why do you think it shouldn't, if that is what you are saying?

Why shouldn't they avoid school PE altogether?

And actually, as a separate issue, I would say there is a role for a report writer within all this.
Organising a sports team and event (as it sounds like the House Captains are doing) involves dishing out a variety of roles. Some of these might be scoring, timing, report writing, organising teas etc etc. all of these things seem valid to me and if each House is required to do them, different pupils can play to their strengths. Sports reports which a re published or read in assembly and hugely important for boosting the morale of Houses and building team spirit. They can be amusing and much looked forward to.
However, if it really is that only 1 or 2 are doing this against their will, and everyone else is joining in, then I can see this is a problem.

Many non-sporty types would much PREFER to write a report than take part in the activity itself. Personally I think that is fine, as long as they can't avoid sport altogether.

Firstly, I would want to clarify exactly what happened.
Sometimes children come home and say things happened in a certain way, and on investigation, it wasnt quite like that. So when you say 3 or 4 were not picked for events, was it 3 or 4 or actually a bigger number. When he says everyone shouted his volunteering down, is that exactly what happened? How much of this is down to the House Captains and how much to the Staff?

If I were contacting the schools I would not be complaining, but enquiring,not establish the facts.
Perhaps email the Housemaster and enquire about how allocations to team places are made for each event. Is it completely done by the pupils? Is there an attempt to include everyone? How many people are not included? Is it usual for people to be report writing rather than participatng?

It is often better and brings a better end result to approach schools this way. Questions will mean they have to find answers. It may mean that they need to investigate and deal with some unsatisfactory practices. It may simply mean that you get answers and find out it wasn't exactly as your son reported it.....and Im not suggesting he is lying for a moment.
Perhaps reserve judgement until you have the answers to these questions.

"I think it's fair to say that part of what you pay for when you go independent is that culture of respect and support for achievement in all its forms."

You know, I don't think it's fair to say that all. But, as I said, hey ho. I thought this was turning into quite an interesting discussion about the role of sport in school and how achievement is measured. But if we have to start by accepting the position that "private schools automatically do this better than state schools" then that discussion becomes impossible.

Shame. I hope your son finds his niche in his school, and gets a chance to compete at sports day next year if that's what he wants. For what it's worth, I would encourage him to refuse to take on the "reporter" role.

You know if I made a sweeping generalisation about private schools I would be rightfully panned. Even if it was supported by personal anecdote.

But hey ho.

"Interestingly, the only kids he had problems with teasing/name-calling in his first few months were a few boys who came from the local primary school, not from the independent feeder schools. Almost as if it was 'learned behaviour'"

Are all the boys who told your son he would be rubbish at the sports day events ex state school kids too? The 6th formers who came up with the rubbish "be a reporter" idea?

"I work in school sport and also private clubs/classes. It just isn't for every child. No matter how much enthusiasm the teacher has some children it just doesn't sit well with. They are instinctively more attuned to a more academic role."

Sure, this is clearly the case - dd will skive any sport that doesn't involve horses or water - but the OP's son DID want to be involved, he was enthusiastic, if not talented. I'm really glad that dd can be part of her out of school lifesaving club and despite being the slowest in every race still feel valued and encouraged to hang in there and take part.

"His sporting achievements seem to make it OK to do other stuff. And that can't be right."

This is so true - there are 3 or 4 pupils in dd's year who are exceptionally academic. One of them is also very sporty, he is fine and doesn't get the grief that the others do. Luckily dd is confident and creative, and has now made friends in older years through clubs, but it sounds like a couple of the others really struggle.

My boys went to a bog standard primary school. It's probably now about 50/50 children from the council estate and children from the "naice" private estate.

Every year at end of school year, all the prizes given out were for being on the football team basketball team. tbf they did punch well above their weight in these sports with children from all walks of life going on to represent Scotland in youth competition in a number of sports.

However, what does annoy me is that there were no prizes or awards for the academic or non sports orientated things. Partly I guess they get rewarded daily by being able to achieve well in the class but it does make me sad. I was also a bit pissed off that No2 son came 2nd in a National competition in Maths against kids in high school while still only 10 and not only did he not receive the promised certificate, it wasn't even mentioned in the weekly assembly never mind the end of year one! and .

No1 son did really well in a chess competition and not only was it not mentioned in assembly, when it was mentioned in class it just gave the kids more reason to bully him.....but he was expected to go along and cheer these same kids on in a basketball tournament! I opted him out of that!

I've had similar myself today.

I coach sport, there is always a 'sensitive' child , who doesn't really want to be there. Sport is not for every body. Sport is sometimes not inclusive for everybody.

I work in school sport and also private clubs/classes. It just isn't for every child. No matter how much enthusiasm the teacher has some children it just doesn't sit well with. They are instinctively more attuned to a more academic role.

What wax the school supposed to do? Your child isn't interested in competitive sports - the other kids where. It's sports day.

Hakluyt. I always wondered why sporty children can have it all. Your DSs sportiness will be held in high esteem so he can do what he wants and this will gild the lily even further. For other children, it is not until sport is given equal weight with other achievements, that they will be given equal status and value in a school. In my old grammar school, colours were given for sporting achievement and nothing else. Many schools have a similar tradition where sport is the number one achievement because it is the one where the school competes against other schools on a regular basis. My DDs old school were regular national champions at hockey and tennis. This was the biggest success on the planet, plus they had the junior sprint world champion and a hugely talented gymnastics squad. Great if you are in these teams or in the same house as the sprinter who more or less won sports day for her House. Every year.

However, the talented musicians, actresses, dancers and even academically gifted children were never accorded the same status or had so much written about them in magazines or so many pages devoted to their achievements at Speech Day. Music competitions are largely in school with supportive parents in the audience. Same applies to drama productions and nearly everything else children do. Sport competitions are the only aspect of school life that go on largely outside school. The need to win therefore becomes super important. The people who help the school achieve their sporting and marketing aims are therefore the heroes. The child doing grade 8 singing or flute or who does the most amazing art is largely unnoticed, unless of course, they happen to be a brilliant sporty type too.

"I also find the idea that every child who isn't into competitive sport must be secretly striving to get into a sports team silly - it just isn't the case. I think that's part of the problem - the 'alpha sports' families just don't understand that there can be plenty of other fulfilling aspects of life, thank you."

I do find this interesting. I hope you don't mind, OP- if I make this a more general discussion about the role of sport because I've been thinking about it a lot. I have a musical, drama mad son. It is possible for him to be openly musical and drama mad at school because he is also very sporty. Many of his friends either don't do anything drama-y or musical at school at all-or keep a very low profile, but ds can be the person he wants to be because he is also captain of the football team, a very successful wicket keeper and (as of today) under 15 1500m record holder. His sporting achievements seem to make it OK to do other stuff. And that can't be right. And it seems to be the same regardless of school type or sector. How do we change it?