What do you think about school finishing early for the football?

[RequestInUse]

That really. This letter comes home Monday saying this;

*"Football is like marmite..... From time to time.... Very Important matches involving the England team are held in school time and this can cause big problems for families who value football highly...... Therefor for this match only we have made these 3 options....;

1. Collect child at 1:20pm onwards so can settle as a family to watch kick off.
2. Collect at half time, between 2:30-3:00 so adults can watch the while of the match and still collect children.
3. Collect at normal time.

All children in school that afternoon will have a choice of activities, either ther watch the while match or arts and crafts."

*somewhat shortened

I'm a bit stunned by it personally.

I'm really torn about this - dd is in year 10 with mocks coming up and they have the option of spending periods 4 and 5 watching the football. Unsurprisingly, an awful lot of her friends have discovered a hitherto unexpressed interest in football

In a way I think it's nice that this is something everyone can watch and get excited about, and I know some workplaces will be doing similar things. But I also feel football is always a bloody special case in a way that nothing else is, and that's a bit irritating. And not really ideal with exams coming up.

Euros are once every four years. Like it or not its a big international sporting event. I think the schools are completely right to let kids see it. They'll enjoy it. Probably its one of the things they'll always remember from their school days. I think a lot of people on this site must lead very joyless lives if kids in school watching their national team once in a blue moon only produces misery.

I suspect it's because the teachers/school staff want to watch it

Completely agree.

I'm not comfortable with small children being taught that this is the done thing - jack in work to watch a sporting event. I'm also not comfortable with them being peer pressured into 'supporting' something that they may have no interest in.

Little 5 year olds, who may never have seen a football match in their lives, suddenly being told that they ought to dress up in their team's colours (what if they're not English? Do they then have to either conform or stand out from their friends?) and 'support' a team that they may have no interest in.

Don't like it at all.

Sounds like an absolute logistical nightmare.

Fair enough if England reach the final just about but for a bog standard match it is lunacy... I say this as a football fan (we will have it on in the office tomorrow. DS will be picked up by granny at normal time!)

Euros are once every four years. Like it or not its a big international sporting event.

So are the Olympics, Summer and Winter. Commonwealth Games. Paralympics. Rugby World Cup Lions tours etc etc etc.

think a lot of people on this site must lead very joyless lives if kids in school watching their national team once in a blue moon only produces misery.

It isn't exactly inclusive is it? What if your National team is Poland or Ukraine. Can people have time off to watch that?

What about other sports aswell.

It is being unfair if you don't give the same opportunity for other things.

Despite what some may think not everyone loves football.

DD's school is doing this & I am baffled by the decision. It encourages the idea that football is somehow above everything else, something which particularly rankles given the recent behaviour of some football fans. The school are incorporating things to do with Euro '16 into maths lessons & some other subjects which I think is a good example of imaginative lesson planning. As others say, I will be interested to see what happens if England women's football team have any weekday afternoon matches next year. Or what about England women's netball which is probably played by as many primary school girls as boys playing football.

I would also like to ask all the posters on here who are of the view that as it is a national sport and the majority ( or they think that) support it , and this is about national team etc etc, and therefore ok for teachers and children to effectively have time off and stop what they should be doing to watch ,...is it ok if people in work do the same thing ?

Because I would quite like to suddenly develop an interest in football and close the surgery and let me, the other doctors, the nurses and pharmacy team all go home to watch ? you patients wont mind will you ? cus like its our national sport right ?

oh and i will put up a list of all the times the surgery will be closed while england are playing...oh and wales as we are near the border...

now think if the hospitals , ambulance service, policemen, local library, dentists, fire brigade etc etc did that...

*There is no cultural element to football, unless you count pathetic people screaming at men on a field, drinking like louts, cheering, shouting, chanting and leaping up and down pretending to be excited because someone else somewhere else has kicked a ball as "culture".

Football fans are a total embarrassment*

That is pretty bloody offensive you know?

My family and my ex's family and so now my daughter are massive football fans. We go to matches, we don't drink, we enjoy the match as do 99% of the other fans.

You do know the hooligans aren't representative of all fans......head tilt?

However much you argue football always HAS been a massive part of English culture. I am far more of a rugby league fan - but I can acknowledge this is important and actually I think the school are doing something really fun for the children. I couldn't get worked up about 1 hour of schooling being missed for anything including watching a DVD of Shrek or a lot of colouring in

I think the OP's school has handled it brilliantly - covered all bases.

But maybe because I also take my daughter out of school for the opera I'm not such a "chav"

theredjellybean

Yes - if they are in a place of work that CAN do so then yes I think its fine.

I've watched matches at a solicitors, a games studio, a national bank.

All fine you know if the job lends itself to that!

As far as English culture is concerned, I grew up with a sports mad father. Football season was in the winter. The summer was cricket season. Where has this all year constant football come from?

There are so many people already booked off Thursday afternoon where I work that nobody else is allowed any time off that day. The whole country grinds to a halt to watch men kicking a ball.

If they'd said 'all children must be collected at 1.20pm' then I'd have a problem with it. But they've given three options. If you don't like football, if your child is too young to appreciate it, if they have absolutely no interest or if you simply don't agree with time off school then simply collect your child at the usual time. I don't see the problem. It seems like a nice idea.

my childrens school is actually finishing late so that the children can watch the whole game

I hate it. It reinforces the myth that football is objectively important, and not a matter of subjective taste. There's loads of things that are as important to my family as football is to some, but I don't get time off for them.

OK. So some people are in the 'this is fine coz football is our national sport' camp.

We don't watch football in our house so can I have an early pass for when the cricket is on please? (perhaps others would prefer a Wimbledon pass?)

I think the real message from the Head is:

"Dear Parents

We know some of you will invent appointments for your child or claim they are unwell so that you can watch the England v Wales match.

To prevent them missing an entire day of education we are going to allow them to leave 1hr 40 minutes early. This will also mean there is no impact on attendance figures that would reflect badly on the school.

I also quite fancy watching the match too so this is my solution"

I'd be furious! Football is NOT important. What about parents who have to take time off work? Lose pay? All so that the 'sheeple' can watch millionaires kicking a ball of air around a field in their underwear?

Why do parents have to take time off?
I'll post the options from the opening post to help those who couldn't manage to read to the end of it.

1. Collect child at 1:20pm onwards so can settle as a family to watch kick off.
2. Collect at half time, between 2:30-3:00 so adults can watch the while of the match and still collect children.
3. Collect at normal time.

You do know the hooligans aren't representative of all fans......head tilt?

When did I ever mention hooligans? I'm not talking about hooligans; I'm talking about the behaviour of people screaming around the TV, drinking, jumping up and down, chanting and singing - it's absolutely ridiculous behaviour for grown adults to partake in. So childish and uncouth, and all because some silly overpaid men on the telly are kicking a ball. How is that "culture", exactly?

The attendance issue is not quite the same because a child out for a holiday (etc) is missing lessons that the others are actually doing. In this case the children left at school will not be doing anything very important. I have never heard of this before. Not sure what I think!

They are doing this at our school. As a family we have absolutely no interest in football. DD is 5 and she really doesn't care. Yes its great for those families who enjoy it- we're a rugby family so why not for the Rugby world Cup? or for those who love cricket etc...?
However my main gripe is that at our school "kind hands, be nice to each other, no saying awful things to each other, no violence" etc is promoted with these mantras trotted out every day- brilliant.
Then under the guise of so called patriotism, kids are encouraged to watch a sport that breeds violence (promotes)tribalism, sexism, racism- every ism one can name. I think its fucking ridiculous!

Oh FFS! Our secondary school is doing it, too!

So my dc will each have one lesson cut short (Maths and Music) and miss one lesson entirely (Science and Maths). Neither are in the least bit interested in football. They will probably end up in the library.

Well, it won't be a total waste of time, because one of them will probably get all their homework done!

But the hypocrisy. I am furious.

Yea, those who don't want a boring sport - that generally seems to promote hate and violence thanks to the knuckle dragging fans - imposed on our children are just miserable Marys, if only we were enlightened to the joys and wonders of fucking football

Having had the displeasure many a time of sitting through a 90+ minute match, I can assure you for those of us who aren't bothered about football (and there will be many children) it is utterly mind numbing. Why would people want that for their kids?!

I agree that football is part of English culture. But this 'culture' has done little good except to set expectations on little boys, create a massive sexist divide for girls and women, increase in racism in sports, give 18 year olds with no brain £100k a week to contribute towards prostitution, endless professional players on charges of racism, rape, domestic violence, dangerous driving to name but a few (I can't think of any other sports where criminal players are ten a penny) and a thuggish Neanderthal culture which has seen people's lives end, people put in wheelchairs and the English getting a terrible name in other countries because morons see fit to go over and sit topless on road signs grunting like bears with sore heads. But it's all good cos it's football innit.

Not all cultures are good. I'd love to see a snapshot of what this country would look like sans football. It certainly shouldn't be hailed in schools as something important