to think this is unacceptable

[mileend2bermondsey]

Just found out that in my hometown high school PE activities are still split by gender. The boys do football and rugby, the girls do netball and hockey. When the girls do dance, the boys do tennis. I cant believe this seperation is still going on without question.

Apparantly if a child 'kicks up a fuss' about wanting to do a sport of the opposite gender they will be allowed to do it but would be the only boy or girl in the class, hence hardly any do.

I think this is outrageous, all children should be taught all sports available as standard. Why is a seperation based on gender neccessary, and why is this still going on?

It's the same at my children's school too. It's actually caused a few issues there with the kids who are doing PE GCSE as they are doing netball as one of the sports and the girls who have been playing for years are having to be taught with boys who haven't played since primary school (or at all in some cases).

Yet again it's the "schools" fault. If your child has a want for a sport then find one outside the curriculum then.

Can you imagine a teacher splitting a class by size and weight? Really?

I do agree that I would hope kids could be offered all things but the hard reality is that is only 3 girls choose rugby and it is a single sex class then rugby isn't viable

Jeepers

That is not particularly practical in state schools with classes of 30!

op at my school a group of girls in my year approached the teacher about wanting to play rugby, a girls touch rugby team was duly set up (not sure why girls rugby was non contact but the boys rugby was contact but never mind). Is something like that possible, a minor scale petition from the pupils themselves.

I dont see why some people are finding this so hard to wrap their heads around. No need for mixed classes, no need to ask the students which subjects you they want to choose and having classes of three.

Instead of having 2 semesters of netball and 2 semesters of hockey, they have 1 semester of hockey, 1 of netball, 1 of football and 1 of rugby. Within the single sex classes they are already in.

I genuinely do understand what you are saying. However from many years of experience in a secondary school having a term of rugby for all will result in a significant number refusing to participate. Similarly with dance and gymnastics.

I think we generally do the same activities apart from those ones listed. Actually, maybe gymnastics is also on the rota for all.

What I do know is that all teachers teach all things regardless of sex.

I do stand by this being harder than it seems when you are dealing with groups of 100 13 year olds at one time with limited space in a cramped building. That won't be the case everywhere though

Pinot not sure many girls want to scrum

That is just your opinion. DD was on her school rugby team, 12 yrs ago (approx). She had no interest in dance classes, whatsoever.

Disgraceful if it's not a choice for each child. So YANBU, mileend

No football for girls at dd's school, seems archaic as women's football is growing exponentially at the moment.

There's already a massive problem in terms of getting girls to enjoy physical activities in teenage years and beyond. Many schools are trying hard to find activities that will appeal to a larger number of girls so that there is a greater chance that they will find something enjoyable to continue with once they leave school - they've looked at lots of alternative options to the standard hockey, football, rugby, etc. If those don't seem to be encouraging large numbers of girls to enjoy sport and want to continue, then I can see why they are doing other sports that might, even if that means disappointing some girls who would prefer those sports - perhaps they are the ones that would be more likely to continue anyway, and less in need of this type of intervention.

I'd have hated football and rugby; we did do some of that in PE, and most of the girls hated it and did as little as possible, and dropped the whole torture as soon as we could. If we had had the opportunity to do something like trampolining, aerobics, pilates, etc, then some of us might have enjoyed it a bit more, and not had such an aversion to exercise in adulthood.

So I can see why they might be trying to do it. It would be great if they could have a system where people were able to choose different sports, so that those who wanted to do rugby or football had the chance, but the others weren't forced into it.

It goes on the law of averages and I said not many. It isn't disgraceful at all. If your child wants to do something out of the curriculum then help them do that.

Sorry if I sound daft, but why aren't classes co-ed?

Here in the US it's all co-ed and the kids all manage to get along just fine with it. When we did wrestling or something that required physical contact beyond light bumping, we were paired up with like gender.

Boys learned girly sports like softball and girls played tag football (american football).

No one ever complained and no one was ever touched inappropriately.

My school always had mixed classes, we only did one term of dance, but boys and girls both did it, we did gymnastics which was taught by a male teacher, we did tag rugby, the only contact rugby was after school I think (there was a girls group and a boys group for that), we did hockey, football, athletics, tennis, badminton, basketball and netball, rounders and cricket. All of these were mixed gender, sometimes they split us into gendered groups (for races etc) but we were all in the same class. None of us ever had a problem with it, the only people who didn't like the classes were the ones who didn't like the sport/PE in general, nothing to do with gender.

For me it isn't really an issue, and it is still normal is most secondary schools that I know of.

I would concede though, that a little more flexibility would be nice. My DD2 preferred football to anything that was considered a girls' sport. My DD3 loves virtually any sport and would do them all if she could. Neither has shown any interest in dancing though.

Girls or women football teams aren't too unusual. Most of the premiership clubs have them as far as I know.

I can see what you are saying OP but how many girls want to do football and rugby. Ok some will but the majority probably won't. Same as boys, how many of them want to do netball and hockey. Probably not that many which is why they do it as it is.

It's how it worked at my school and o one complained. We did do badminton with the boys but that was it.

Pinot - Yes, it is disgraceful! Many parents are unable to fund extra-curricular activities. Sporting activities are part of the national curriculum (still, I think). Therefore, the pupils should get to choose their option from what is offered by the school. So if rugby/football/netball/hockey/dance are offered, each pupil should be permitted to choose from the list. It's not rocket science.

Don't force a girl to do netball if she would prefer rugby
Don't make a boy play football if he would prefer a dance class.

The bit that struck me as odd was, "When the girls do dance, the boys do tennis." I went than all girls school decades ago and we did both dance and tennis in PE. I've never thought of tennis as a traditional boys' sport in the same way as football or rugby. Similarly hockey is a sport I've always considered for both sexes equally.

Fwiw, I would have loved to have been taught football, rugby and cricket, as well as woodwork, technical drawing and metalwork. All were unavailable in my girls' grammar school in the 1970s.

Of course it isnt "disgraceful".

As I said previously, these classes are set by averages and there is peer pressure too.

A boy will not go do dance at school due to probably being riled by peers.
A girls wont do rugby or football due the the others not wanting her on their team.

So, if they have an aptitude and really want it then its up to the parents to find an outlet for them other than school.

At DD's all girls secondary they play touch rugby, soccer, cricket etc. Along with netball, hockey, badminton. (this is in NZ though).

They do no dance whatsoever other than the odd zumba class from time to time.

"but why aren't classes co-ed? "

At 15/16 the boys are far bigger and stronger than the girls. I think there is no way it would work to have a mixed football team or rugby team under those circumstances. Using the equipment in the gym wouldn't be a problem though.

We had separate pe and female teachers for the girls and men for the boys. Completely acceptable since they would be in the changing room which had a shower area! We wouldn't of been happy showering with a man in the room and I don't think any girl would be.

If a girl wanted to do rugby she could of joined the school team and done training after school with the rest of the rugby team.

Also with all our hormones around mixed pe wouldn't of been a good idea. We were already tying up our pe tops and rolling our shorts up when walking past the football pitches let alone having to play with sweaty hot boys.

Pinot - Sorry, but it is because of the defeatist attitude you are expressing, schools are finding it difficult to move into the 21st Century.

Peer pressure will remain, as long as parents and schools allow it.

Oh please don't force girls to play rugby, or boys to do ballet. Yes, some will like it, but the majority doesn't.

Boys and girls are NOT equal, it's a biological fact, enough already with the gender neutral nonsense. Who cares? My boys love rugby, I can't think of any girl around me who is remotely interested in getting her face bashed up.

One of my girls does boxing (of all sport!) outside school, so I am not against giving opportunities to everybody, but please let kids be kids.

That's stupid. Girls play tennis.

At my dd school, they had to do a football gala day. Teams were divided but the girls competed too. The girls learnt a new sport and had fun. The boys competed in netball gala day, again separate comps because the girls would have flogged them (most play weekends, it's popular in our area). At younger ages, the girls are bigger than boys! And they do t do tackle at school.

I dont have a defeatist attitude, I have a real one knowing that boys like boy things and girls like girl things mostly. We are not the same. I for one don't want us to be thank you.

Wow - I had no idea this happened in schools??

I left secondary school in 2005 - we were never split up into boys and girls to do different sports. That's madness!

I played football throughout secondary school, I think everyone should be given the opportunity to play different sports that they made not have necessarily chosen to do - a lot would surprise themselves.

It's 2015!