Football might be coming home - but not if you are a girl says Government.

[StarlightLady]

Football might be coming home but seemingly not if you are a girl at school.
Government guidance states that while schools can coach boys-only football teams, girls should be offered “comparable activities”.

Comparable sports could include netball, rounders, tennis and badminton.
The Department for Education (DfE) has refused to commit to ensuring that girls have equal access to football in schools.

Equality issues surely?

Comparable activities could also mean a girls only football team couldn’t it?

How is the DfE supposed to ensure that all girls have access to a girls only football team when there might not be enough girls in some schools that want to play football to make it viable?

Schools shouldn’t be forced to make girls play football for the sake of a minority, just to appease the DfE, when the majority of girls would prefer another sport. But of course of there are enough girls that want to make up a team, then the school should facilitate that. Some things need to be led by individual schools and the needs of their pupils rather than being dictated by the DfE.

Does it say they can coach boys-only teams, or that they must offer boys football? I'd be surprised if the government was so insistent on what sports schools have to provide, as I thought that was primarily a decision that schools could make themselves. Of course I think schools should offer a broad variety of sports to both sexes. I don't know if football is so important that it has to be specified, though, or that if there is a boys team there must be a girls team, much as I hope that there would be. But football isn't that special. And forcing people to coach teams they are not interested in doesn't sound like it will do a lot for progressing a sport. None of this means that I think girls sport isn't important or that girls shouldn't have plenty of access to football. I am just not sure that inssisting that schools provide it by law is the right way to encourage it.

I don’t know of any schools that don’t do girls football though. It depends on the experience of the teachers too-one school might be great at hockey. What they should be doing is upping the number of pe hours (and funding them) so all sports could be covered. However, I don’t think it is as big a deal as you think. Be interesting to know.

I read it as if there is extra curricular boys sport then extra curricular girls sport must also be offered, but not necessarily the same sport.
I do agree though that if there is demand for girls football it should be provided if boys football is.

I take this back, I’ve just read the paper and it suggests only 44% of secondaries offer girls football. However, I’m not sure the dfe should be saying what games are played at all, but whatever schools offer needs to be available to both sexes-if there is demand. I don’t believe males and females should play contact sports together at secondary which can limit access to some sports. Whole pe curriculum needs looking at.

At my dd's new school, only the boys need football boots. They weren't very helpful when I asked if this meant girls don't get to play football.

I actually think this is a bit of a tough one tbh. Of course girls and boys should have equal access to sports overall. But should it have to be exactly the same sports? There's only so much time/teaching so if they have equal access to football they might miss out on other things they'd rather do. In an ideal world all students would get to play all sports but that doesn't necessarily work with mixed sex groups.