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Original poster

EURO 2016 - should children watch Eng vs Wales at school

260 replies

OX3Mum · 13/06/2016 21:05

My football loving kids are distraught that their primary school isn't showing the England vs Wales Euro 2016 match this Thursday at 2pm - apparently for 'technical reasons'. Are any other primary schools showing it /letting kids go home early - or are there going to be loads of kids going home sick this Thursday lunchtime...?

OP posts:
specialsubject · 14/06/2016 10:23

Doing sport is a social activity. The plan here is just to watch the.telly.

And I'm sure that like England, Wales has plenty of people who couldn't care less about spectator sport.

BeyondTellsEveryoneRealFacts · 14/06/2016 10:26

"I am Welsh. Football is unimportant. Rugby is our game."

Wales are good at rugby every year. If youre a welsh football supporter, you dont get the opportunity to watch a meaningful game anywhere near as often Grin

lalalalyra · 14/06/2016 10:42

Both primary and secondary here are showing it (not Wales). They're both quite sporty schools so they often have things on in the halls. At the primary they'll swap Friday Golden Time to Thursday. The teachers who don't like it are doing a couple of different activities for the children who don't want to watch.

I don't think it does any harm as long as the school are balanced about it and it's not every single week. DS is talking about the extra effort he's been putting in this week because if they get things finished then they might get 15 mins of Golden Time on Friday as well. The school are excellent at using it as a motivational tool with the children, and they always have a fun atmosphere in the hall no matter what sport it is they've stopped for.

Yokohamajojo · 14/06/2016 10:44

Although our female middle aged head teacher is massively into sports and football I don't think they will show it unfortunately! It may be up to the individual teachers in the classrooms though, like a golden time award. My DS1's class has picked teams and will do a project on each country so it's very educational too Wink

SouperSal · 14/06/2016 11:41

Ours are. Might be a once in a lifetime event for (Welsh) DD! Grin

RaptorInaPorkPieHat · 14/06/2016 12:21

DD's school are watching it in class (year 10 and less than a week until their exams)

DD is less than impressed. (although to be fair to the teacher, he has said that anyone who doesn't want to watch it can revise Hmm )

I love football as much as the next person but we didn't do stuff like this in my day Grin

wigglesrock · 14/06/2016 12:51

My 8 year olds primary school class are watching it. They all have teams drawn and are doing a class project on countries, flags, food from countries etc. We're in NI, so they have two weeks of term left before they break up for the summer holidays and to be honest are on a wind down anyway. The younger kids aren't watching it and I'm not sure about the older ones. I've three in the same primary school.

MiddleAgeMiddleEngland · 14/06/2016 13:00

What about all the children who aren't interested in football? What will the teachers do with them - provide fun activities elsewhere?

What if a child had an interest in another sport and that was being televised during school hours? Would that child be allowed to sit in front of a television to watch it during school hours?

Why this massive bias towards football?

BaboonBottom · 14/06/2016 13:16

I will be really annoyed if they are watching it, they didn't watch Tim Peake, they didn't watch the eclipse recently.
Plus like lots of others are saying lots of people just aren't interested in football. If i hear they are i will be tempted to go and pick them up and do something they enjoy after all everywhere will be empty

I don't get the bias towards football either, its a big thing at my kids school, the play ground is taken up by constant games of football, you can't join in if your not good enough, but theres no room to play or do anything else. The boys are split into football players and non football players and theres no chance of a girl getting a look in despite the england football women actually doing really well

MiddleAgeMiddleEngland · 14/06/2016 15:31

Baboon They didn't watch Tim Peake, but I watched the first moon landing on TV in the school hall in 1969. That was a historic event worth watching. Football is not. It'll be on the iplayer later for anyone who's interested anyway.

MildlyattractiveBetty · 14/06/2016 15:34

But not all children are interested in football? I hated it growing up (and now) why should those who don't appreciate the ugly game suffer?

MildlyattractiveBetty · 14/06/2016 15:35

Probably should have RTFT

HisNameWasPrinceAndHeWasFunky · 14/06/2016 15:38

I don't think my DC even realise a tournament is on - I barely do.

Many of us don't care a toss - I really don't want my DC watching TV at school.

kali110 · 14/06/2016 15:57

They did this when i was at school too, over 15 years ago.
I was very bored Grin

imwithspud · 14/06/2016 16:04

Re: not everyone liking football. When we watched it at school way back when, we were allowed to do other activities: drawing, colouring, chat quietly, board games, we sometimes even had a film on in another room If we didn't want to watch the game. Everyone loved it as an end of year treat. A half day or two of this once every couple of years didn't harm my education long term.

cricketballs · 14/06/2016 16:34

a few years ago when there was an England match in a major tournament in the morning, my HT sensibly started school later. If students needed to come in at normal time, then there were staff there and breakfast was laid on.
My current HT has said no to any streaming; already a lot of students have said they are voting with their feet and (backed by their parents) have said they are not coming in at all (we don't allow to go off premises at all at lunch, so if they want the afternoon off, they have to have all day unless a fictitious medical appointment!)
To be honest, the first half will only be the final hour of school and if this means that students are in school for the first 5 lessons then this has to be a serious consideration. If students aren't bothered, then there is a lot of other things that they can do during that hour.
Whilst I appreciate that some posters don't like football/can't see the importance it is a national sport which attracts millions of supporters and don't we live in a democracy where the majority vote overrides?

nuttymango · 14/06/2016 18:31

No. My two both say they do not think they should be watching it in school. DS#1 is doing A levels and is annoyed that he will be missing A level work to watch a match so he's going to lessons anyway as his teacher is still running them for people who want to go. DS#2 says he wants to watch it at home and not at school, I'm tempted to collect him for the afternoon and go out somewhere instead.
We'll watch the match together that evening.

nuttymango · 14/06/2016 18:33

Just RTFT, that's a good point re Tim Peake and the eclipse; my DS#1 was allowed to watch it but DS#2 wasn't. I wasn't amused by it because both were important events. I'd bought DS the right glasses in case he was allowed to but no, they had to stay in lessons.

NataliaOsipova · 14/06/2016 18:39

Some schools are showing a football match in the middle of a school day??? Dear God. If my DC's school does that I'm complaining to anyone who'll listen and taking them out for the afternoon.... Bloody ridiculous.

SabineUndine · 14/06/2016 18:44

Good grief. I remember watching the moon landings in 1969 at school, and precious little else. A football match is hardly epoch-making, is it?

Chloecoconut · 14/06/2016 18:49

We are watching it at my primary school. Years 3 upwards have the option to watch or carry on with normal lessons. The teachers that want to watch it will be balanced out by those that don't so it's a win win for pupils and staff. We watched the eclipse and Tim Peake. If there are scenes of hooliganism there will be a technical fault ....

GrimmauldPlace · 14/06/2016 18:51

It's not in the middle of a school day it's an hour before the end of the school day. It's not compulsory in most schools (the schools where it is, you lot have cause for complaint!) it's not going to turn our children in to delinquents, it's not going to ruin their education. It's is one hour out of hundreds in a year that they are at school.

Backingvocals · 14/06/2016 18:51

don't we live in a democracy where the majority vote overrides

By that token we'd have our children studying X Factor instead of Shakespeare.

GrimmauldPlace · 14/06/2016 18:57

I presume all the parents who are outraged would stop your DC from going on a trip to a theme park as an end of year treat or complain if a film was shown that wasn't purely educational?

manicinsomniac · 14/06/2016 19:09

Two genuine questions from someone who's never watched a football match in their life:

  1. Why is this match unusual? Don't England and Wales play each other several times a year? They're right next door?!
  2. If it is such a special match, why is it being played at a time and day when most of the population will be unable to watch it?

We're in the middle of school exams. I didn't know anything about this match but I really doubt we'll stop and watch it. There aren't many football fans at our school anyway, I don't think.

I'd be quite annoyed if arrangements were made to watch this over any other sporting event. I hate football but adore tennis - I'd love to stop lessons and watch big Wimbledon matches but it wouldn't be allowed. Most of my classes are passionate about rugby but we don't drop whatever we are doing to watch those matches. I don't see why football should be different.