To think sports day SHOULD be about winning!

[CandOdad]

So today we have sports day which yesterday meant a letter coming home telling us all about "the spirit of the game" and how we shouldn't cheer for our child or the team they are in since it's all about the taking part.

Now my son had a Beavers sports day a few weeks ago and not one child was upset at the trophy giving for the end and cheering for your Beaver set was actively encouraged.

Is it not time that children should be taught that there will be winners and that life is about how you deal with this and improve yourself rather than us all getting along like some happy clappy squad?

Before it's assumed I was the "winner" at school, I was not. I was most definitely the last at everything, but this taught me about how to value the other skills I have.

Ours is competitive for houses, but not for individuals.

I think there should be both. One of the boys in my DS's year is autistic, doesn't have many friends and isn't very academic, but boy can he run. It would make his year to be the absolute best at something.

Yes but turtle, they obviously just used the same sport day formula but with no winning, so no wonder it was crap. Now, how about a day of performances, cheer leading for older girls, dancing, gymnastic teams doing human pyramids! Why do kids have to be pitted against each other? I spent all year being a nobody with no real talents or skills, do I really need miss wonderful to trounce me in front of my parents as well?

In my experience of traditional sports day at a modest sized school, many watching parents cheer on their own child, their child's friends, other children in the class they know, the child of the person sitting next to them & the younger / older siblings of all these.
Interestingly my lad and his equally sporty friend have worked out that it doesn't matter which of them places 1/2/3 so long as they both place as they are both in the same house and thus earn house points for the same end. It's probable that they will both place highly in every event as they tend to in athletics club and class pe ,which has focused on sports day athletics this term.

OP does the school have a history of having to deal with 'over enthusiastic' competitive parents.

My DCs school there are no parents at the sports day, it's all about teams. There are still winners, but as a team.

Plenty of time after life at school to experience being a loser.

My school has changed its formula this year so all have to compete and get a scoring that stacks up for their houses. Some field events are more competitive with a selection taking part in that event.

So far it seems to be striking the balance well as all efforts contribute to the house, and a chance for the best to showcase their talents.

A sense of competition and ambition is an important life skill.

I was never a winner at sports' day. Unless to include the time they lost one of the eggs for egg and spoon and gave me (and only me) a bean bag instead.

I think it should be about taking part, but also the winners should be celebrated. Some children it is the thing they can do, and why shouldn't they be praised for it.

And I don't think it does make the children nicer about it either.

When I was little we were in teams and they would give us a talk before we went out that we were to cheer for our team and no booing. Anyone who booed was going to be immediately taken in. I can't remember it ever happening to anyone. You saw who was lining up for your house and you shouted their name. Plenty of people cheered for me-who was going to come last and not particularly popular.
It was a house competition, and you got points for joining in. I think it was roughly: 5 points for winner, 4 for 2nd, 3 for 3rd and 1 for doing it.

Now the juniors school is not really competitive. They have it as half the time relay events in houses, and then one sprint each and one competitive long race that heats have been run during the week per year (large year). It's entirely about the house, no prizes for individual winners.
It's actually very boring.
But actually the children are much more competitive individually in the cheering. You get the "in crowd" in each year chooses their friend to cheer at the top of their voice, drowning everyone else, and groan when they don't win. I've known them cheer when a competitor falls over. They don't cheer for their house, they are entirely friends.

It used to be the points system was on amount they did/how well they did, which at least could be reasonably fairl judged.
This year, they decided to change it. Each child was judged on their "sportsmanship" as judged by a child from another year. Other than this not being really definable, I suspect it's done so they can fix it so each of the houses can win in one age group.

Total waste of everyone's time.

Most points have been addressed. I used to be a PE co-odinator and ran a sports day which was house based. It was competitive and included sprints and relays and also javelin throwing. It included obstacle races and team building type things. It was a small village school where everyone knew everyone else. Every competitor was cheered from the tiniest nursery child toddling over the line in last place to the Y6s thundering down the track. Maybe the school wants to stop over-excited and over-competitive parents screaming at their child.

DS1 is in Y1 so has only done one sports day so far, when he was in YR. At his school, the younger ones do team sports and relay races. In Y1 they earn points for their team, and in Y2 they do a flat race in groups of 6, so half the children get a rosette for being place 1st, 2nd or 3rd.

Various children have a different starting point, to take account of their different circumstances, so the fact that someone has cerebral palsy or severe autism and can't cope with the sensory overload does not mean they can't race.

The kids who got the biggest cheers were the stragglers, including one adorable little YR child who stopped to wave at her adoring fans when she heard her name being chanted.

IMO the best sports days have a mix of competitive events (races, relays etc.) and fun events (egg and spoon race, sack race, wheelbarrow race etc.). That way the fastest/sportiest kids win prizes as do those who got lucky and didn't drop their egg or whatever. It's fun and challenging for everyone.

It seems to be missing part of the fun of sports day, if the parents aren't allowed to cheer. At ours, the parents added a lot of humor to proceedings with their cheerleader antics and wolf whistling. Cutest bit was when some of the kids heard parents shout their names and would stop in mid-race to see where the shout was coming from.

I think it should be competitive. Kids need to learn they won't always win - that message'll start coming across as they get into on-line gaming anyway, but can't hurt earlier.

I was (and still am) crap at sports, take great delight in looking at what the sporty kids are doing now on FB & am bloody glad I focused on other stuff....

Agree with Worra. Sports day for parents would die out if what you've posted is actually correct, OP.

Good sportsmanship is a key lesson to learn but sports are naturally competitive and there's nothing wrong with that.

Many sorts of achievement should be celebrated in schools (even if teachers have to look hard to make sure that no-one is left out if everything all year).

Exactly this from Auntie Stella. I think it's fine for the sporty kids to get a bit of praise, but the non sporty ones shouldn't be made to feel crap. Same as academics or singing or drama or anything really.

Competitiveness is notan easy thing to debate regrarding children. A tiny percentage in life will be WINNERS by Premier league standards so we
do need sportsmanship and cooperation taught in schools.

There was cheering and clapping at ds's sports day but spectators had to sit well away from those racing as there were quite a lot of children with asd who couldn't cope with noise.

Sports day shouldn't be just about winning. Yes, competing and winning for the more sporty competitive kids but it should also be fun where everyone can get involved and have a go. I think the big team really events at good for this as it doesn't show up the slower kids as much - say co pared to a 100 meter sprint. Also the more fun silly events.

I hated sports day with a passion. I was always last. I am not one of those people who says, "Oh, I was always last." I genuinely was the very last and remember on one beastly occasion a group of mothers laughing at me (this was the 70s...). There was also the year they had a prize table, and I was the only child with no prize whatsoever. I suddenly burst into tears and a teacher came over and gave me a token to fetch a prize. I chose "Ponies in Clover". I couldn't enjoy that book as I felt I'd cheated. It taunted me for years from my bookshelf.

Anyway, that being said, I still think that there should be some recognition of competition and cheering on in sports days. Some of the kids love it. I think the cheering the house/team is absolutely a good compromise.

I was rather depressed when a well-meaning but rather swing-your-pants right-on teacher friend of mine mentioned haughtily that there were no races in her school's sports day, only "participating in modules"

It shouldn't be competitive and winning doesn't matter of course but just want to add that I won my mums race last year, not that I really noticed of course - it was the taking part that counted.

I do think its fine for sports day to be competitive but I don't think all races should be compulsory. The teachers will be aware of the child who is always going to come last and may feel embarrassed and should give them something else to do if they prefer that- not say they can't compete but ask if they want to.
Its great for kids who are sporty to shine but no-one should feel humiliated on sports day. The kids wouldn't be lined up to do spelling or mental arithmatic with parents cheering the winners and all kids competing.
Banning cheering on sports day is completely silly though.
This has parallels in adult life-we have sporting tournaments-everyone enjoys them and cheers the winners but we don't force dyspraxic people to participate for a laugh. Also we let people choose their best events-we don't put weightlifters in sprints.

I'm sure most schools bend over backwards to make sure no-one is humiliated.

Not in my experience derxa but I'm thinking of both the 1950s and 1980s-we all bear the scars! I saw one little boy-not in my family- being laughed at by his peers and almost crying cica 1987. Some parents were sniggering-not a nice thing.

We had our sports day a couple of weeks ago. Utterly pointless afternoon of non-competitive activities. No races or any winners. Apparently they were winning points for their houses but as none of the teachers were actually keeping score it was a bit farcical. It was like watching a PE lesson.

I agree with the people who said you should have a mixture of competitive and fun activities

Sports day is about taking part and promoting sport. Part of that involves achievement/winning but it's not the main point imo.

For me, the most lovely things that happen at sports day are:

Children trying hard and having fun whilst doing so
Parents coming along and supporting the school
The sense of achievement that come from winning AND from having taken part, wherever you fall on that spectrum
The competition (individual and group)
The fact that in the older children's group race, everybody slows down and holds hands with their classmate who is disabled so that they finish together (they do this of their own volition)
My very good mate who is also disabled gets up and does the Mums race even though she can barely walk and she does it with a smile on her face, simply because she wants to show her children that she CAN do it

Not cheering is bloody ridiculous. I cheer every child whose name I can remember and the teams and the teachers and I'm frankly, embarrassing.

If I enter a running race, there is usually a memento for all finishers (t-shirt, medal, mug etc) and trophies/prizes for the winners. I don't see the problem with celebrating winning AND participation.

If it can be done for adults, it can be done for kids too.

I've not read all the replies, but I agree with you. This is coming from the person who was the smallest, weediest child in her year, suffering with asthma and desperate not to come last in everything as usual.

But you know what? I was in all the top sets academically and my moment came when I won Gold for a maths prize in assembly. My tall, athletic (gorgeous) best mate was happy for me, just like I cheered her at Sports Day! There's nothing wrong with healthy competition and its our responsibility to teach sportsmanship. Some children excel at sports, why shouldn't they be rewarded?