to take my DD out of end of the year production in Y6???

[katmat3]

Please tell me because lately I am not thinking with clear head.
My DD is not chosen again for any part ( except singing and dancing with few other kids) . It's not the first time and maybe my pregnancy hormones are working but it's something that is happening all the time. I am aware as other few parents are that headmistress has certain kids that she always puts up as a frontrunners for everything ..But for everything all the time??? Really???I am talking about last 3 years.
Same kids,same main parts.I am gutted for my DD. I am not bragging but she is really good ,confident,very committed to her work or any given task but she just has bad luck.
This production is for Y6 mainly and she actually doesn't have any part.I signed the letter for her to give tomorrow that she will not participate (only one probably) but I can't let her always be in the corner while the SAME kids are always doing the parts...
AIBU???Please.
If I missed anything I will add....

As i said on another thread, people take school events too seriously.

No, I think it exists mainly in the heads of parents and sometimes in the heads of children. And exclusively in the heads of children and parents who think that someone else is the favourite.

Annie - you are being incredibly rude. My point about the donkey was that we first noticed he was comfortable & happy on stage when he was given the lowly part of a donkey. Again his donkey part was commented on by parents & teachers. You may find this hard to believe, but he has gone on to be cast in West End tours, films & voice overs so he clearly has some talent - even if there are more talented kids out there. He didn't win an Oscar for his portrayal of a stable animal but the point was he didn't needed masses of lines for it to become apparent he is comfortable on stage. My point was that people should stop judging a part on number of lines & they may well see someone do a small character really well. Taking part I'd worth doing - even if the part you match is smaller.

In terms if fairness he took part in trials for cross country at school. He was absolutely delighted to come in the place to get the last spot on the cross country team (& tab his heart out for it). The next day a larger boy who had been absent for the trials came back to school & was given ds2's place. That's not fair IMO but because it's sport no- one bats an eyelid. And I told him he had to suck it up.

And in ds2's year 6 play he didn't have the largest part in terms of lines, but when I heard which play it was I thought 'bet he gets cast as X' - and he was & no I didn't talk to the teacher in advance, and he definitely was not one of her favourites -they had quite a tricky relationship. I thought her casting was spot on for all the kids though & they put on a great show as a result.

There's so much sniping towards kids who are good at drama - it's really quite unpleasant. Have you heard the voices of the children playing in Matilda or Charlie? Have you seen the dancing of the kids in The Lion King? They're all excellent & they have all been through a casting process lasting months. To say they're OTT and stage schooly just suggests you've never actually seen them. You may not like musicals but there are plenty of other opportunities to see talented kids. They're not that hard to find.

Weird that you think talent can be spotted in sport but not in drama. Where does it suddenly appear from?

Ds3 btw Is the child who gets one or two lines. It's enough for him, he likes talking part, he's proud of what he does (& praised for it) & if he did more it would be horribly stressful for him. He loves singing - but is not hugely tuneful so he sings in a choir - I would worry hugely if he was given a solo. He has different strengths - which are recognised & encouraged and he gets his chance to shine in them. His classmates who are good at performing get their chance in class plays.

Teachers generally don't have personal feelings about children - that would be weird, as well as unprofessional.

I'm a teacher. IME, it's impossible not to have personal feelings about children. Some are likeable, others harder to like, others tug your heartstrings - but acknowledging those personal feelings and doing your job with an awareness of them is the professional bit kicking in. Like any other group of clients, children do inspire personal feeling in those who work with them. I remember children I taught 12 years ago who I couldn't stand and others who stood out as being absolutely lovely. My professionalism did a good job of not conveying those feelings though. I'm secondary however, so maybe a bit different to the OP's context.

I confess to not rtft but she'd be pretty unreasonable to pull her DD out. For better or worse, these are the things we often remember about school and I'd worry that pulling her out on a point of principle might upset the rest of her (presumably happy?) memories of primary.

Of course teachers have personal feelings about children- they are not robots! However they don't show them.

Yes, perhaps I phrased it wrong. What I meant is that I really don't believe that teachers go out of their way to have particular favourites or, another MN gripe, to take against a child.

I teach hundreds of kids. Can't think of a single one I dislike.

I can think of several with, ahem, very few redeeming features. I'd never show it though.

Quite easy not to dislike one, but you must have some that you like personally more than others, even though you never show it.

I would say that I have some I spend more time with - I teach drama so it's the kids who do youth theatre and/or school shows and/or take my subject as a KS4 option.

Doesn't mean I like them any more than those once a week KS3 kids though.

Having now read the entire thread,I think, OP ,that it does sound as if you have a point. Especially if year 6 is only one class!

When my daughter was in Year 6 they did an adapted version of the Lion King as the end of term production. Years 3 to 6 could audition, but the main parts went to Year 6's. My daughter was lucky enough to be chosen to be " grown- up Nala" and got to sing " can you feel the love tonight" and had several lines.

Now she's in 6th Form and about to be Munkustrap in Cats. It's taken since year 7 to get a main part,but then,she is happy to just be involved in the productions - she lives and breathes them!

We sent out the roles for our end of year show on Friday, last thing. Hopefully any complaints will have been dealt with at home over the holidays and moved on by Monday next week.
Have kept all the audition paperwork just incase though!

We do deliberately try not to cast same pupils in lead role in y2 if they were lead in y1 though. It's normally possible to have enough decent roles to dish out when you have 90 children in the year group.

And for the biggest roles we split them - one pupil plays role in first half, second pupil does second half of show. And we always chose a play with several larger parts and never one with just one or two key roles.

Every child who wants a spelling part will normally get at the very least one line, though sometimes it might be said with a partner.

We are an infant school so it's far more important to let everyone appear and take part than choosing only the best. And at our age group parents really are usually coming to just see their own child's starring role if I'm honest.

At primary age I do think it's important that the lead roles are not always the same one or two children. But in my experience - with dd - luckily, it's never been the case. Those that are particularly interested and/or talented tend to be involved with performing outside of school too so don't tend to put too much focus on the primary school play.