More of a WWYD--DD team selection

[Abr1de]

The history first (sorry). Having been in an A team for hockey DD was then dropped to B. She was upset and asked the teacher about it and the teacher (also her form teacher) got very short with her and told her off and said she was complaining.

Anyway, we told DD to get on with it and she has played cheerfully for the B team and done well. On the whole she gets on well with the teacher.

Fast forward to a cross country team selection. Daughter comes seventh out of her year (99 girls). The team comprises 12 members. Four were away swimming that day but are good runners so they were automatically put into this team. But, as my daughter came seventh in the actual trial, doesn't that mean that she should still be in the team of 12? That's what we thought. But she wasn't chosen. Now it may be that another good runner was off sick and she was added in to the team, and that's fine.

But she tries to talk to her form teacher (ie, the teacher who chose this team) and is just blanked.

Not so much AIBU for feeling a bit frustrated that the subject is apparently closed, but more WWYD? I don't want to seem pushy and, more importantly, get my daughter into more trouble for seemingly being 'too' keen to get into teams. But it would just be nice to know why.

Maybe she came 7th on that one trial run but generally doesn't do as well?

I do think she should be given an explanation, and would suggest she keeps trying with the teacher, not in an accusatory way but in a "I want to improve so can you tell me what I need to do" way. I think if you get involved it would be a bit of an overreaction.

Yes, that might be the case. As you say, it's probably be better if they could talk to one another about it. :)

I agree that your dd deserves an explanation if only so she can improve on her hockey/running.

Is your dd at secondary school?

If so, I'd leave it for your dd to raise the issue in a different way.

The coach/teacher sees all of them play/run regulary whilst you are only hearing the reports from your dd. Just because she came 7th in one particular trial doesn't necessarily mean she is the 7th best runner. You getting involved would probably be the worst thing you could do.

There have been an awful lot of bugs ect around recently so perhaps there were several faster runners off sick.

This all sounds wise, thank you all.

Well, update. She managed to talk to the teacher, which was good. But it was apparent that the teacher had got into a muddle (had possibly lost the result list). The girl who'd come sixth in the trial wasn't chosen for the team of twelve, either. The teacher said she had one 'spare' place for the team and one of either this girl or my DD could have it. My daughter did the graceful thing and bowed out.

I am actually quite cross. This isn't the first time there's been a muddle like this.

op

is there a local athletics team/junior hockey team that your dd can try out for?

way back when, my best friend was frequently overlooked by the pe teacher for team selection. she joined the local athletics team and only when she was in the paper for winning an area competition did the teacher change her mind!

she seems so keen it is a shame to have her talents limited by one person- a broader perspective might be in order?

Yes she is in a local athletics team and has run events for them over the last three years. She also throws discus and javelin (and has done for the county, though we don't think she will this year as she isn't on such good form). She has been in the paper several times but we are in a slightly different area from the school.

We were thinking about joining the hockey club in autumn, though.

Thanks for the support, though.