DS never gets to take part in PE :( advice?

[emistingtress]

DS hasn't particularly gotten on with many people this year. He is never picked when they play a group sport, so he sits at the side and takes scores. Teacher has said that he should try and make friends with his class. It hasn't happened yet... He still sits at the side and takes scores unless it's the warm up of something that isn't a group sport but it nearly always is

I never got picked for teams as I was the smallest and skinniest in my year.

WTAF? PE is supposed to be a lesson, not a playtime plenty of exercise to be done individually, and friendships should be irrelevant.

Christ this is awful. I thought they stopped this ritual humiliation decades ago. Complain, complain, complain. It is tantamount to bullying condoned by the teacher.

Our school dealt with this by assigning the kids a PE t-shirt colour, 4 in total. That way the teacher divides the class for group sports by shirt colour not who is friends with who.

You keep the same colour for the entire time you are in primary.

But surely - even if he's left til last he's the last pick and is therefore on the team that didn't pick first. Doesn't sound quite right.

Cruel, but certain people are always left til last, not just on popularity but on aptitude for sport if the kids pick themselves. Letters, numbers or drawing lots is the better way.

As it's private - you are LITERALLY not getting what you are paying for if your child is being made to sit out every PE lesson.

And you are paying for this?
And have put up with it all year?🙄
I would change to a more inclusive school.

Complain until it changes

It doesn't matter whether he's popular or not or good at sports or not. This is a PE lesson for 9 year olds! It's not even school teams, it's a class lesson and he should be taking part with everyone else, and the teachers job is to facilitate that!

Is this a state school? PE is a legal requirement so there's no way they can get out of providing ALL students with appropriate provision. Definitely take this further.

Sorry just seen that it is private. Still take it further.

You're paying for your DS to do PE. Complain to the head.

Incidentally my DS is shit at sport (he has dyspraxia) but the teacher chooses the teams. Always.

Are you talking about PE or Games, OP?

I thought this horrible practice would have died out by now. I do the team picking when it comes to any team or group work in my class.

Complain.

So your son is being isolated and excluded by his peers and the teacher is colluding in this? And for this you pay termly fees? WTAF?

Definitely deal with this OP. If the teacher won't listen then take it higher.

In my case there were 30 in my class who were expected to play a game made up of teams of seven. That made four teams. There was always at least one person away so that left me on my own, every time. No, I tell a lie, I got to play once when there were two people off school.

It's not good enough. I learned that I wasn't worth anything; that I didn't belong; that everyone else came first; that I didn't do sport.

Don't let your DS learn these things.

Is this during break times, or during an actual PE lesson?

Because if the latter, you needed to kick up a huge stink. Wtf?!

that is ridiculous, they are deliberately excluding him for whatever reason and the teacher is allowing it to happen.

You need to speak to the head IMO.

The mad thing is that the op has waited till the last week of the school year to do anything about this. A whole year of son being excluded. Why would anyone put up with this and PAY for the privilege?😡

This must be the government's flagship Lord of the Flies Academy.

Cherry picking, except it's not a state school - the op is paying for this Lord of the flies school!

I would be as concerned with the fact that your son isn't getting on with anyone in the class generally, rather than just not being picked for PE. Has he always had this issue or has something happened in the class this year? Any why isn't the school doing something about it?

Is very sad to think that your son is doing full days at school with no friends. What does he do at break times/lunch time?

I'm a dinner lady and often referee the footie - I soon noticed friends were picking friends and the same ones left til last with understandably sad faces. I now make them stand in a line - no captains- and go 1,2,1,2 etc until everyone is assigned to team one or two and then pick someone at random to kick off. It's so much fairer. Maybe you can suggest it to the teacher.

I haven't heard of this for 20 years.

surely if she sees he is sitting out each lesson she is bound as a teacher to say hang on... So that he can participate ? Or change how teams are picked, or something?

Virtually all private schools will be on hols now. I'd speak to school at start of new term. All sounds very odd.