Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. A phone that grows with your child.

Meet the Other Phone.
A phone that grows with your child.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to not want a move towards competitive sport in primary schools

205 replies

noseynoonoo · 13/08/2012 18:24

First off, this is not a political rant and I hope it doesn't turn into one.

I am so cheesed off about this: www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-19219942

The details are patchy but it looks on the surface that competitive sport such as football and netball are to be widely promoted - is there anything less motivating?

Football, is just too dull, kicking a ball around, usually with limited skill at primary level whilst netball involves 7 girls per team of which 2 stand still most of the time.

My daughter just wants to be active. I don't care if it's competitive, I just want her moving and being fit. As the second tallest girl in her class, and if teachers are as unimaginitve as they were in my day, she'll be Goal Shooter or Goal Keeper and kept within a small semicircle. My son is a little dynamo and finds football dull. I hate to think of sports being so restricted.

So, can anyone tell me that I have misunderstood where school sports is going?

OP posts:
Hulababy · 13/08/2012 19:53

Yfandes - look at all those athletes who won medals and see how many haven't be brought up on a lot of competitive sport and who only relied on school PE to do well. These are children who went into their sport big style. They will have trained from being fairly young and trained hard - and all in the name of competition. School PE will have had very little bearing on almost all of those Olympic athletes I reckon.

As I said before, DD's PE teacher was an Olympic athlete. DD's school has a lot of competitive sport and ALL children are involved in competitive sport from reception. They support every child to do THEIR best in these sports - it's not all about the winners or those who represent their city/country.

Downandoutnumbered · 13/08/2012 19:54

I think it's an urban myth, catgirl.

catgirl2012 · 13/08/2012 19:55

Phew :)

Hulababy · 13/08/2012 19:55

catgirl - in many schools it is, esp in infants. This was the first year in many years that the infants I work at had a competitive sport's day. It was pushed by a new enthusiastic male NQT and it went down really well. As said earlier it was out first sport's day to be well attended by parents too.

catgirl2012 · 13/08/2012 19:57

Hula -hope they stick with it

I was no great sports fan at school but I don't think non competitive sports days teach children much

You need to learn to lose

Downandoutnumbered · 13/08/2012 19:57

Hulababy, if they all do competitive team sports, how do they stop the children who are good at them being vile to the ones who aren't when their team loses? Do they just regard it as character-building?

Downandoutnumbered · 13/08/2012 19:58

I don't have a problem with learning to lose or with competition, btw, but I have a fairly major problem with enforced public humiliation and bullying.

Hulababy · 13/08/2012 19:59

devondeva - at DD's school they also have ALL pupils involved in the choir and in orchestra, all children in speech competitions, all involved on stage in the school plays, all expected to have solo parts in speaking and singing. Every day stuff involves all the girls singing, speaking, and taking part in maths, science, art, drama, spelling and writing competitions - with interhouse or interschools within the city, country or country. Competition isn't restricted to just sports at DD's school.

sadie3 · 13/08/2012 19:59

Nowadays there are external clubs for every single sport imaginable most of them are oversubscribed why? Because schools are not taking sport seriously, children need to exercise it releases endorphins keeps them slim and healthy.

catgirl2012 · 13/08/2012 20:00

I didn't know they were events at school sports days...............

sadie3 · 13/08/2012 20:01

Downandoutnumbered, What about the children who are fantastic at sport but not academic?

GlassofRose · 13/08/2012 20:01

downandout

I see where you are coming from. It's probably the reason we have over paid stroppy footballers... clubs full of amazing players who can't seem to work together.

It's not good for the kid being made to feel crap and it's certainly not good to allow another to think they can make another feel crap. It's not particularly hard to stamp out during lessons either. One kid belittles another gets sent to sit on the bench for a bit.

Competitive sport already exists in primary schools anyway... children learn to play Hockey, Football, Netball, Rounders etc...

Jins · 13/08/2012 20:01

It's not the competitive nature of sports that I have issues with it's the 'team' nature.

I had hoped that by now there would be a move towards providing a range of physical activities for young people that they could carry into later life but it's still the same old shite we had. Football, netball, hockey etc.

I cant be arsed to get involved in a team thing but I'm fiercely competitive as an individual. I wasn't the only one.

Let's get this issue sorted before another generation gets put off physical activity for life by the focus on making people play team sports

Hulababy · 13/08/2012 20:02

Downandoutnumbered - it just doesn't happen. There is so much other stuff going on at different level sin all aspects of the curriculum that they all see that some children are good at one thing others at something else. There is a lovely ethos in the school ad the girls all care for one another and look out for each other. Now, obviously all schools have incidents of bullying - but this is very rare and not linked to competitive sports, and it just isn't allowed to persist even if it did begin. Anything like that is dealt with at the first instance. But as I said - it just isn't an issue. They seem to have the whole thing sorted in a very workable way.

Sirzy · 13/08/2012 20:02

how do they stop the children who are good at them being vile to the ones who aren't when their team loses?

exactly the same way they would deal with a child good at maths who was being vile to a child who wasn't.

Thats the first thing we need to get away from this attitude that bullying in fine in sports. That is something that can be helped by teaching children how to be part of a team and to respect everyone in that team and what they can offer.

devondeva · 13/08/2012 20:03

again, we're mixing fitness and competitive sport. Competitive sport doesn't necessarily provide optimal exercise - think cricket and rounders, where you can often not break a sweat (particularly if you're not good at it).

Downandoutnumbered · 13/08/2012 20:05

sadie, I've got nothing against sport - by all means have team sports for those who want to do them, and I certainly think there ought to be compulsory exercise of some kind for everyone (and I've got nothing against individual competition - I didn't particularly mind coming last in races on sports day). But for those who are no good at team sports they really are just an exercise in humiliation. Yes, you can stamp on any bullying that goes on actually in the lesson (though no PE teacher I ever had bothered: it does seem to be a profession that attracts a disproportionate number of sadists), but you can't stop it altogether, and you can't make a child who's good at the game want a child who's useless on their team.

MephistophelesSister · 13/08/2012 20:06

Hulababy I like the sound of your DD's school Smile

Prarieflower · 13/08/2012 20:07

Hula I taught for 15 years and never came across this,pre-school yes as you would expect as 3 is when social skills such as this are being learnt but 8 year olds no.Maybe the odd child but the vast majority sorry are able to lose just fine.I think you've been unlucky.

I think if they're going to raise competition in PE lessons then it has to happen right across the board so all kids get to fail publicly in the same way. That way you don't get just the elite few enjoying their superiority in a not very nice way week after week.If they know they''re in the bottom maths group they might just treat the PE losers with a bit more respect as next week it could be their turn to fail in full view of the class. Also those failing publicly 3 X weekly would get to have their self esteem raised in other classes,that's assuming they were in the top groups for other subjects.

Also to all those who agree with Dave can I just ask if you have an unfit 13 year old,very short sighted perhaps with low physical self esteem,useless at catching a ball,useless at running,who always hides herself by hovering well away from any action so they won't get yelled at for dropping the ball or show everybody how slow they are how is raised competitive net ball lessons going to a)improve her fitness,b)improve her core skills and c)improve her self esteem?

Downandoutnumbered · 13/08/2012 20:07

Sirzy, the trouble is that the ethos children see on TV is that bullying is fine in sports. Look at the abuse footballers mete out to each other. And some kids have nothing at all to offer on a sports team - for example, because they're shortsighted and can't see the ball, or have a disability.

catgirl2012 · 13/08/2012 20:08

If a child was not good at maths you would not say, "oh but it is an exercise in humiliation for them. You can't make a child good at it if they are useless. Let them drop out of it"

Nor would you say it for anything else in life.

Learning to lose is important but so is the lesson that sometimes you have to do things you don't enjoy

wordfactory · 13/08/2012 20:08

downandout what on earth makes you assume that those who are good at sport will be horrid to those who aren't?

Would you expect those who are good at music to bully those who aren't? Or those that show prowess in academia to bully less able DC?

Really, the idea that DC will be forever scarred if they do somehting they might not shine at, is silly. Surely we are all bringing up our DC to be robust?

Downandoutnumbered · 13/08/2012 20:09

Oh, and it's much less publicly obvious if you're no good at maths than if you're no good at sport. I don't want to diminish how hard it is to struggle with academic subjects, but the element of humiliation in front of the whole class isn't often there.

rhetorician · 13/08/2012 20:09

I think there are problems of definition here (the gender thing is pretty annoying alright); the OP was talking about team sports, which overlap with, but are not the same as competitive sports. Running is competitive if you are in a race (even if it's with the stopwatch). Team sports are not everyone's cup of tea, particularly as children get older, but many individual sports require little in the way of equipment (e.g running. You will Need. Children. A space. A stopwatch). These sports also often promote all the same things - fair play, respect for opponents, etc etc.

When I think of competitive sport I think of the very highest level - I run, I compete, but I am not in any sense competitive (e.g. never could compete with the best, only with myself)

Prarieflower · 13/08/2012 20:10

Also Hula doesn't your dd go to a private school?

I'm suspecting there are better facilities,smaller classes and fewer SEN kids.Kind of different to your average state school.