To think this isn't a very god idea (school related)

[DrOwh]

Received a letter from Dd's school yesterday saying that they decided to do a scooting workshop (on a non PE day), so the children can learn some new tricks and also how to scoot properly, safety, etc...They are paying outside people to deliver the workshop.

Dd is nearly 7 years old and has been scooting since she is 2 years old. She is very good at it and do it on regular basis. She is generally good at sports anyway and she has lots of opportunities to do physical activities so I would rather her spend time in school concentrating on what she needs improving (Literacy and Maths, she is behind her peers).

Also, the school want the parents to provide the scooters. Children will have to leave their scooters there, the workshop people will pick the ones they want and all the children (Y1, Y2, Y3, Y4) will share those scooters. Now, the school is in a not very desirable area and the majority of the scooters I see there are old pieces of junk, rusty and broken handles, bad wheels, you get the picture.
There are few good ones and those will be the ones chosen I am sure.
Now, Dd's late scooter was stolen last year and she had to wait nearly a year to get a brand new one and she just got it less than a month ago as an early present for her Birthday which is in April! The weather improved and I has spare cash so we decided to give her present earlier. I am not generally a selfish person at all but I am not comfortable in lending this scooter to school...

Dh can't see no problem, and he thinks Dd needs to decided. I asked her what she wanted (before speaking my mind) and she said she doesn't need scootering lessons and would rather do arts and crafts or something. Nor she wants to share her scooter.

Luckily it is optional and I don't think we will take part but IABU to think it is a bonkers idea??

It all seems rather badly thought through. What is this company going to do if no-one brings a scooter, or they're all really bad? And if they depend on borrowing scooters then either they or the school will have to have insurance in place both to deal with any damage or lost scooters and any injuries arising from defective scooters.

We have had scooter days like this, usually with the younger children, and each child brings the scooter they want to take part on (if there's only one or two children left out, we have a couple of school scooters they can borrow). The aim of the workshop that we book is 'scooter safety' so it's not actually teaching them to scoot. Instead it is road awareness, encourages them to use helmets, they learn to manoeuvre safely round obstacles etc.

As a PP said, if it was a workshop for literacy or numeracy you wouldn't give a thought to those children who don't need the extra help. Besides, if your daughter is struggling with the academic stuff and is aware she is struggling (as children usually are) it could do her self esteem some good to be one of the better ones at an activity.

If it was a literacy or numeracy workshop the OP wouldn't be expected to lend an expensive piece of equipment to somebody else's child not knowing whether it will come back in the same condition it was lent in.

Oh no, I wouldn't be happy with lending out the scooter, especially if the workshop, people and the school both say they won't accept any liability. That was in answer to the comment about wanting to make sure she spent her time in school concentrating on what she needed to improve on. A school is a collective learning experience, the needs of other children needs to be taken into account. If you want everything tailored 100% to your child's needs, home school or hire a 1-1 tutor.

I actually missed the part about it being an optional workshop the first time I read the OP- so just don't take part if you don't like the idea but it's not a 'bonkers idea' as many of the other children could benefit from it.

The bonkers idea is to share the scooters in my opinion.

There aren't even enough crap scooters to go round and the good ones are very few - if the parents will be willing to share -.

I am glad it is optional, but I am not sure how they will divide the members of the staff between the scooting and the kids who don't want to take part.

Dd sometimes is pulled out of P.E and Art lessons to do extra literacy,so I would be extremely pissed off if she had to waste time "learning" how to scoot.

I went to her class project exhibition, and on one of the art tables, she didn't have her piece of work because she simply didn't do one as she was busy doing a one to one session.

And she is already better at swimming and doing really well at Ballet, she knows her strengths.