Gender-segregated races at primary school sports day

My 9 year old DD has had the opposite experience, the boys in the playground don't want girls playing with them.

I love the way they organise things at my DS' infants' school. All the events are team events, done as relays, with about 4 or 5 children in each (mixed) team. Prior to puberty there really isn't any difference in strength and speed. And since sport (like maths, English and the rest) should be taught as "preparation for life" - in this case, trying to show children that being fit and active can be fun. I see no reason with this age group to push having overly competitive individual events. Great if they have a natural aptitude - that's what athletics clubs and the like outside of school are there to foster - but I hated the way sports was taught when I was at school, where a handful of sporty kids got all the attention and the rest of us were alternately humiliated or ignored.

And it is really, really hard to push against gender stereotypes. For instance (DS is 7) there are several girls in his class who seem to enjoy playing football at break times, so he's tried to persuade them to come to the after school football club, but none of them will.

Never a good idea to segregate by gender unless you really have to www.lettoysbetoys.org.uk/ten-ways-to-challenge-gender-stereotypes-in-the-classroom/

I live in Australia where sport is taken very seriously.

At our sports day the children are divided into boys and girls and by age.

The age thing is not even school years it's October 1st as that is the start of the Athletics season! The school year is February till December so they can be in a group with dc who are not in their year level.

Actually, thinking about it more at my dc's athletics club, the boys and the girls are not allowed to run in the same race as it affects the times. And they can start at age five.

It is far easier to group children by something obvious. We had mixed classes so would generally split by year group. It also stops parents complaining that races have been set up for x to win it y to lose.

I didn't mean boys are really aggressive. Obviously that would be tackled. I meant they can be quite competitive and it's quite obvious which puts many girls off. They already expect that the boys will be faster and don't really try.

Sometimes it's right to allow girls their own space to find out what they can do.

I'm not saying this should be a reason within itself to segregate. I think modelling sporting practice from adult races is probably a better one. It's just something I've noticed.

Shirleybassey, the OP said I guess it's important to do this when they get to a stage where boys are physically stronger than girls to give the girls a fair race. So your point is really quite, erm, pointless - she quite obviously would not advocate joint races at the Olympics.

I'm fairly sure they don't segregate by gender at my kids' school, numbers would be too small for that!

Exactly Shirley that's why I think separate women's/ girls sport from early on is a good thing. Jess Ennis achievements are just as important in their own right as say Bradley Wiggins's ones.

Interestingly men and women's sporting abilities start become less polarised with some very extreme events ie multi day non stop endurance events, possibly due to fat burning ability and mental strength but this is outside mainstream sport really!

I don't think it's "othering" because both groups are being treated exactly the same, I would have objections if some events were boy or girl only, or boys always went before girls. I also don't think it's telling the girls to stay away from the boys any more than it's telling the boys to stay away from the girls.

I would say mixed in KS1, segregated in Key stage 2, where physical strength differences come into play might be reasonable, but I think the problem does come when a child asks why, it's very easy for someone to just say "boys are faster" or similar which is not good. Whereas the response "because that's how competitive athletics works so it's good preparation" is more reasonable.

you might want to take this up with the Olympic committee.

let's have men and women running the 100m together and see how many women come first.

same goes for all other athletics events.

I don't think it is just done for ease but sometimes gender segregation can have a really positive effect which conversely results in a more equal less sexist society. For example girls do better in physics and maths in single sex groups thus are more likely to become engineers, scientists in the future. Some colleges run female only construction courses, hopefully long term result more equality, less gender division rather than more. Do agree about the behaviour of the boys needing to be tackled but for me this isn't the main reason for separate races. Really interesting thread and can see both sides.

I was under the impression that gender segregation for no reason other than ease was frowned upon (I'm sure I saw some guidelines on the subject)

I'm not sure that segregation to solve aggression is the answer (possibly because DS1 is particularly gentle) - I think that teaching those boys that the aggression is not acceptable (and how far you can go whilst in a friendly competition) would be a better route (as I'm doing with DS2 who can already intimidate DS1 despite a 2 year age gap) - that will help them and all their peers in the future too.

As I said, I'm not sure - but it feels a bit like rather than attempting to solve the problem they're just telling the girls to stay away from those naughty boys rather than telling the boys off - which starts to edge towards getting victim blamey....

They generally split races into boys and girls for no other reason then they need to have a smaller group race eg 30 in one race isn't practical. The easiest way to do that it's too split them into boys and girls.

There isn't any thought to it beyond that.

However if I were looking for reasons, some boys (even very young ones) can display incredibly competitive (even quietly aggressive mannerisms) that really put girls off. Some boys too. So in order to get the girls to really try to win, putting them into an all girl group can help. And as pp it's setting up the format for the future.

I think gender segregation for races is generally a good thing. I think there are gender differences below 11, small boys still have a higher level of testosterone than girls and tend( except ironically when they are about 11-12) to be smaller. I take part in competitive sport and have won a national title in my sport ( racing against women) my daughter takes part in sport and much prefers doing a cross country race against other girls, than being pushed out of the way by boys in mixed races. Women's sport is important and I like it when the sporting events she takes part in model the ones she aspires to in the future ( whether that is a mass participation event or winning a women's tour de France or an Olympic triathlon medal- we both enjoy a bit of sporty day dreaming) My daughter is in y6 and hates mixed PE, especially for ball sports as the boys won't pass to girls, I think she will enjoy separate girls PE next year far more. Being successful and having the chance to win ( more races more medals to round!)is great for girls self esteem.