Making the unfit kid who comes last run round the field again?

[Veuvelily]

Can anyone tell me the logic here.
What is the games teacher trying to achieve?

The child has tried his best and feels like he’s being punished unfairly
Plus he’s then used up all his energy, so is tired for the actual games lesson

There is nothing positive in this approach whatsoever. The teacher is a bully. Report.

Plain cruel and not acceptable. I was always the kid who finished last. At primary school the teachers were kid and nothing like you've ever explained happened. For me finishing last after everyone else is bad enough, imagine having to do another lap... hell no.

At secondary school it's still not acceptable but I do believe that pe teachers can be assholes in secondary school (not all ofc). Thankfully I didn't have to do any long distance running when I was there but I was always the 'shit at sport' kid at secondary school. Really knocks your confidence.

Either way not acceptable.

I'm that thin person who just never was able to run very fast and have been put off of sport my whole life due to this sort of bullshit. I'm still shamed for my lack of athleticism from time to time. I honestly think I'm bad at it because I hate it, because I was treated like this.

I live in forrin and here dc have 3 hours of pe a week (currently every day to get kids moving again after covid closures).
1 hour is fun unstructured outdoors exercise, basically running about on the playground, skipping ropes, balls, hoola hoops
1 hour is general fitness, running, circle training etc
1 hour is a sports discipline like javelin throwing or tango dancing or basketball etc

kids are absolutely expected to join in but apart from the cooper or beep test once a month focus is on fun.

Bollocks is this anything to do with encouraging the child's fitness. My DD has some minor mobility issues that are undiagnosed and she is shite at running.

I have sought private help for parts of her learning and speech difficulties, but there is absolutely no provision or interest in DCs with minor difficulties and not possible or affordable to resource diagnoses or assistance privately for all aspects.

As someone who coaches kids sport (extracurricular, not school) I find this kind of behaviour totally unacceptable. If the teacher thinks that this kind of thing is going to motivate a child to try harder and improve their fitness then they are deluded, and/or very out of date.
There has been a lot of research done into what keeps kids in sport and what puts them off. Enjoying the activity and feeling that they are achieving something are key things that keep youngsters engaged in physical activity. That doesn't mean that "everyone's a winner" or that you can't have competition - that's bollocks and kids see right through it anyway - it means that you have to give a lot thought to your session planning and figure out how you can include less fit or able participants so that they feel involved and that they are making progress, without the more able getting bored or feeling that they're being held back. Coaching mixed ability groups is hard, sometimes very hard, but surely it is something that school PE teachers should be able to do? I know they see a lot of different kids over the course of a week but if they know a pupil well enough to pick them out for this kind of treatment then they know them well enough to give them something positive instead.
Humiliation is a poor coaching tool at any age or level, but at school or grassroot community sport level it is totally unacceptable and counterproductive.
People - of any age - generally don't need to be told the pecking order in any team or class as they figure it out for themselves pretty quickly. The kid that is overweight, slower, less coordinated or whatever is almost certainly acutely aware of that fact already does not need it to be highlighted to them, especially not in front of the whole class. I'm currently doing a course to upgrade my coaching qualifications to a higher level and I know for sure that if I employed methods like this I would fail.

OP, does your son have an EHC Plan? If so, it might be worth getting it written in that this sort of thing must not happen. It's so thoroughly counter to anything that would normally be advised for a child with autism and PDA that it's verging on disability discrimination.

This happened to me in 1982. The teacher called me back after the first 100m but everyone laughed and yes I still remember how hurtful it was. I thought schools were supposed to be encouraging all children to be fit for life now and not solely focussing on natural athletes?

Is that something that's happening? That's bullying.

I'm a qualified personal trainer and it makes no sense. If someone already struggled with the initial run, then that was enough for them. It's the ones who found it easy who should go round again, if anyone, to give them more of a wokout.

Being 'made' to exercise in a way you find too hard/unpleasant is only going to put people off exercise, which won't help their health long term.

Your child’s weight has absolutely nothing to do with your response to this teacher. I would be marching up to that school and making sure that teacher is dealt with

My DC are in their 20s now but this absolutely happened at their school, accompanied by the PE teacher shouting 'Come on, lardy, get a move on!'

That was the norm when I was at school

I thought we had moved on

There are bullies everywhere

@Veuvelily I would totally report this. It's bullying to single someone out in that way.

Typical action from a bully of a sports teacher. That's why most of them choose that subject, they love to have that power over others.
It just defeats the poor child even more, but boosts the teacher's ego.

@Hellocatshome

Erm this might sound really harsh but the only way you stop being unfit is by exercising more, so running around the field again is actually beneficial to the child's fitness. Obviously has to be done in the right way with the right explanations etc and not done to humiliate the child.

Harsh and not acceptable.

It's bullying. The intention is to humiliate your DS, not improve his fitness. Take it up with the school.

The number of people who are turned off exercise by school and then rediscover later on in life is the best evidence that we need a new approach to school PE.

In reality, whether or not children will enjoy school PE is often predetermined by their physical ability when they start in reception. So ideally don't have a summer born DC and make sure they can run and catch and are very active before they go to school. Children who are behind physically at this age very rarely catch up because sport and PE are self-selecting. The kids who are good at it like it and do more and more of it. Likewise, the kids who are bad at it hate it and do less and less and fall further and further behind.

We need a total re-think to change the system.

Some of the issues your son has can affect motor skills so worth highlighting this to the school. I don't always want to shout 'discrimination' but this sounds like it could be.

You know you've fucked up school PE if a child with cancer or a broken leg can see that no PE is an actual silver lining.

Was the child not trying? As that was what my DS would do, he soon stopped being last and only got to do one lap. I would be worrying if my child was so unfit they couldn't make it around (unless there was some underlying condition).

It is a shame they were made to feel bad though, that is unkind. What would be more helpful would be a friendly chat to see if they wanted to improve and help them with that.

From experience of both my lot and also dds’’, personally I’ve found too many PE teachers to be power-hungry bullies, if not actually possessing sadistic tendencies.
It would seem to go with the territory.

Apologies to any perfectly nice PE teachers on here.

This is bullying and shaming. I’d have strong words as this teacher shouldn’t continue to have contact with their victim.

@Hellocatshome Yes an unfit person should exercise more in theory, but at a level that is appropriate for them. So it'd be more like doing something they find more manageable, more often. If someone finds what they're doing unenjoyable and far too hard, it'll just put them off, especially kids.

The trick is for people to find a type of exercise they can tolerate/enjoy, that way the person is more likely to stick with it.

Bullying behaviour, rather typical too. PE teachers just do not understand why some kids 'can't', has always been so.

My P.E teachers weren't like this at all, so it's not compulsory in a P.E teacher, and not ok.

My dds pe teacher if somoene dropped the ball during catching games they had to run round the field infront of everyone ... DD2 has dyspraxia ,no hand eye coordination and was overweight she ended up loathing excersise and only know a year later in soxth form is she starting to rnjoy excersise