Sports day, what does your school do if it rains?

[Coffeesnob11]

DS attends small primary school and every year Sports day seems to cause issues. After they cancelled it at 10am last year due to the weather there was a lot of feedback from parents saying that they were frustrated as they couldnt cancel their day off when it had already started. This year they promised to make a decision by 8am but here we are again and they are waiting until midday (it's this afternoon!)
We were told to be prepared for it to be cancelled but also told to bring cakes to sell to raise money for the school commitee. I am not sure anyone can make a cake in an hour even if they dont work.

I am lucky in that my boss is flexible so I am not taking annual leave but equally I am unlikely to make it, as are other parents if they reschedule. It also means more time and money making more cakes to sell (with less people being there due to a change of date.

I know its for the kids not the parents but my son is 5 and I get very little chance to go along to things as I work full time and am a lone parent. They also combine it with the prizegiving and fundraising event.

Do other schools cancel sports day and if so how much notice do you get?

Ours usually cancels in advance based on the weather forecast. Day before at the latest or a bit earlier if it's an almost guaranteed washout! There's always a published 'reserve' day and if both end up being cancelled, then they do something in September or move it to an indoors event (no parents if indoors).

Get told in the AM it’s cancelled.

It moves to the reserve day and then gets cancelled if that's also bad weather.

Parents don't generally take time off work to come to it. Partly because it's more of a "sports hour" than a sports day.

We have both a sports day and a “sports day backup” scheduled. School confirms by 5pm the day before whether the sports day is going ahead. If it’s not, it moves to the sports day backup date. Luckily we haven’t had to cancel both so far.
Whichever day sports day is on there is also the summer fete and prizes so you only take one day off work.

I'm not in UK but we do have similarly inclement weather here.

It is standard practice for all school events to be announced with a planned date and a rain date. If it rains on the first date, we move it to the rain date. If it rains again on the rain date, it is cancelled and usually not rescheduled.

Good idea! Sports day is always such a lot of work for teachers (and time off for parents) this is a super idea. The end of term is so over scheduled here though, our school cancelled and said can’t re-schedule.

I completely appreciate all the teachers and the effort into any event. My question and frustration is a lot to do with the guilt of being a lone working parent who doesn't do the pick ups nor a lot of the optional events. With so few opportunities I feel really sad when I can't attend one if the few. Luckily for a lot of the kids many of the mums at least don't work or have very flexible working.
I would be happy if none of the parents went it's more fomo when I have to miss out again and I am letting my child down.

If the forecast is bad it’s cancelled the day before. And rescheduled. Obviously very annoying for those who arrange time off especially.

Cancelled with 45 minutes to go this week.

Also had a birthday party (in the park) cancelled 20 minutes before it was meant to start recently too.

Sports Day was yesterday and is a huge event at our school. It lasts all day, the majority of kids have both parents there, everyone rocks up with chairs, blankets, massive picnics. Each year group comes out for about 1.5hrs (so there's some overlap) and the whole school come out at the end for mum's race, dad's race, teachers race and the announcement of the winning house. It's a brilliant day that we all really look forward to every year.

Well in advance they announce the date and a back up date, if the first date couldn't be used I would imagine they'd let us know the night before at the latest? But in my 7 years it's always gone ahead on the first date.

Ours runs regardless at both their current school and previous one, however both schools hire the town athletics stadium for sports day, and it is a full 9.30-2.30pm type event so it wouldn't be as easy to reschedule as on their own field where there are other bookings for other days. Being at the athletics stadium also means the track is useable regardless (although the long jump can be pretty messy in the rain!) of how heavy the rain is and the kids are in the stands so they're dry between races.

Our kids go ahead in more weather than lots of schools - but our school has no school hall so PE has to be outdoors all year round and the kids are more used to that. If it gets cancelled they'll notify us early (the school is so small that the Head has been known to ring most families himself!) and set a backup attempt number 2 date.
The parents are fairly good as well at arranging it that if someone can't make it - one of the other mums will video their child's races and send it to them to watch (doesn't get posted on social media) and cheer on that child in their parents' absence.

My dc’s School usually just announces it a couple of days beforehand or the day beforehand, when they know they’re gonna have good weather, it’s not a big deal, they don’t require or asked parents to attend. They say you can if you want to but it’s not a necessity and the kids understand that too. That way there’s no pressure for anyone to attend, the kids have fun and that’s the main thing.

Ours only cancels if it’s absolutely torrential rain. They always say they’ll do it in the rain because parents book the day off work etc

One of our sports days this year was cancelled on the Tuesday- it was planned for the Friday the same week. They already had a back up sports day date in the diary for the following week.

Please explain how difficult it is? This year has driven me insane with cancellations, then it’s back on, then it’s provisionally back on, then they’ll check in the morning.
my feeling is that if schools want to organise sports day where parents attend then they absolutely must consider that parents have jobs and cannot take unlimited leave at the last minute. If they cannot make a decision and stick to it in advance then stop inviting us in.
and if you know of a school that holds parents evening actually in the evening please let me know.

My son's school holds parents evenings in the evening, as did every other school my family have been to and I've worked in.
I personally think sports day should be done without the parents as then it'd be much easier and headteachers wouldn't have to listen to twats on here and other socials moaning about not being able to see their little darlings. In fact ban parents from setting foot in schools period.

Cancelled by 9am for an afternoon sports day. Parents were absolutely fuming one year when the forecast heavy rain didn't materialise. What are schools actually meant to do?

We have a reserve date, so we’re given both dates, so parents can choose to keep the reserve date available if they’re able. They definitely would make a call at least the day before if not several days before.

Our schools parents evening is from the end of the school day until 5pm. That is actually parents afternoon.
I think it’s unfair to call people twats for moaning about school decisions. Schools need to do more things in the evening these days. Most parents work and most of the things they ask us to come in for can be done in the evening. When I was in primary school 30 years ago, we had nativities in the evening, parents evening ran until 7pm and even Christmas parties were in the evening. What changed?

Both infants and juniors sports days have been cancelled this year and parents have been informed the day before in both cases and a new date given out. It meant that my husband could go to work and had time to rearrange for the new date. If it’s pretty obvious it’s going to be a washout then I don’t know why some leave it to the last minute. But the poor schools probably don’t win whatever they do with regards to this 🤷🏼‍♀️

They've not necessarily, just the school your children go to is not like the one you attended. We always do evening performances and our parents' evenings run til about 7pm. Parents unable to make it are welcome to make an appointment with me at pretty much any other time between 7.30am and 6pm on a day of their choice. For what it's worth, no one has ever chosen to meet me before school.