Too cold for six years olds to be outside for PE for 45 minutes?

[Married2aWelshman]

I'm all for getting the kids outside, particularly mine, but it was 0 degrees in London today and my DD1 told me that they did PE outside and they were all freezing in their tracksuit bottoms and school t shirts, also allowed school cardigans but that's it. No gloves, majority of them already coughing and spluttering as is the January norm. Some of the, crying. It's not like they were playing rugby and sweating their arses off. AIBU to have a word with the teacher in the morning?

I think that our attitude to cold might be a cultural thing.

Of course it is. Someone from Rome came to work with my husband in London. We called him Max 'Two Vests' Pietrolucci in a nod to The Godfather because he found the winter bone chilling. He wasn't mollycoddled, he just wasn't used to it.

When dd was your ds's age, she wore her coat/gloves and did outside pe. I don't know if they're allowed to now, she's yr4. She has a warm tracksuit and says that's enough. She's a hardy child. Not like me at all. I would have been frozen and miserable. I hated PE in the stupid short skirts and gym knickers in winter freezing your arse off in secondary school. It's very wrong making children go out to freeze whatever age. If they have warm clothes, for most children, it's fine.

One of the blackest days for English football (apart from all the other ones) was when Poland knocked us out of the 1974 World Cup.

The vital qualifier was played at Wembley in October 1973, which would have been positively balmy compared to the lowest temperatures in Poland. And yet their goalie wore gloves.

Bloody special snowflake, coming over here,

You don't 'catch' cough and cold by being out in the cold, but the cold air weakens our immune system, which makes all the dormant bugs that would have otherwise got killed off, come alive, causing colds and coughs.

Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Absolutely not! They should have winter PE kit and get moving to warm up. Lunch break is outside is it not? I work in a school and although we send the children out in coats, the vast majority take them off because they are running around getting warm. Please don't wrap children up in cotton wool.

I wouldn't be happy. My children were made to go out in shorts and do PE the day we had sleet. My child said he was shivering so much and that his teacher had her coat on. Parents did raise this with teachers because it wasn't just a one off. I wouldn't be going out in the cold and sleet without a coat so why should kids be forced to.

Starryeyed54
I'm a teacher and I would take them outside. I always make sure they are wrapped up properly though (hats, gloves, coats etc). When they are listening to instructions we all jog on the spot to help keep warm. I've not had a child complain yet.

I suppose many of them won't because you are an authoritative figure but most of them will go home and complain to their parents!

Also many the boys at our school insist on wearing uniform shorts all winter. They are robust and healthy and rarely off school.

stoopido You wouldn't go out for a run in a coat thought would you?

though

Ironfloor
It's probably more accurate to say that the body diverts resources to fighting off the cold, which leaves you vulnerable to illness. That's why we should all wrap up against the elements.

winter PE kit
Oh my Giddyaunt, the children don't have proper winter PE kit - wouldn't hoodies be an idea?
You wouldn't go out for a run in a coat thought would you?
Hoodies could be worn during warm up and cool down.

babulya That is winter PE kit. A warm sweatshirt/hoodie and warm jogging bottoms. Warmer than school trousers that they play out in.

We are in a part of Germany where we haven't seen anything as warm as 0 degrees yet in 2017 daytime temperatures have been between minus 3 and minus 15!

My 9 year old trots happily off to the bus stop (unaccompanied I might add ) just before 7am when it is minus 13, minus 14, minus 15 - and then when the bus gets them to school 45 minutes before they are allowed indoors he plays outside with all the other kids who are bussed in from outlying villages.

I offer to drive him when I am not working and would drop him off just before the bell to go in, but he never, ever accepts the offer and always goes 10 minutes early for the bus by choice so he can put his school rucksack at the head of the queue to get on (German primary school children have strict queueing rituals which do not actually involve standing in a line...)

However he wears ski trousers and a ski jacket and ski gloves and snow boots and a hat - and although they almost never have "wet" or indoor playtime unless there is actually a full on storm or blizzard they do PE indoors from November to March

We have children at our school today(-2c today) in rain macs, some with only a polo t-shirt/blouse and coat over the top(no jumper or cardigan) and the many boys in uniform shorts as I said upthread. If you know your child feels the cold , you make sure you supply the correct clothing.

I reckon the whinging & general upset if the children might have made quite an impact & put them off doing it again. I'd be surprised if my school did that & it wouldn't hurt to say something. They might not listen tho. They could've done something like meditation in the class room if nothing indoor available. Cold weather is one thing, but freezing is a bit too much, it's not uncomfortable, it's painful & subjecting kids to that is not on.

In winter, for training, the UK football team wear thermal leggings and tops with long sleeves, tracksuits, hats and gloves. I think a six year-old should be afforded at least the same; especially since they are less able to regulate their body temperature than an adult and immune systems are not completely formed until 8 years old.

Yep, this. I am so fed up of people competing with each other to demonstrate how tough and no nonsense they are with dc. It seems like a point of pride in some circles to write off any complaint by any dc as whinging, and any listening to such complaints as mollycoddling.

Children have the strength and resilience to cope with difficult, uncomfortable, frustrating and painful situations. These experiences are all part of the adult life we as parents are responsible for preparing them for. Trying to keep them from any experience whatsoever other then positive ones is not helpful.

45 minutes of PE in the cold will not harm them

"n winter, for training, the UK football team wear thermal leggings and tops with long sleeves, tracksuits, hats and gloves. I think a six year-old should be afforded at least the same; especially since they are less able to regulate their body temperature than an adult and immune systems are not completely formed until 8 years old.

Yep, this. I am so fed up of people competing with each other to demonstrate how tough and no nonsense they are with dc. It seems like a point of pride in some circles to write off any complaint by any dc as whinging, and any listening to such complaints as mollycoddling."

While this is all extremely sensible, is there anything stopping parents sending their children to school with thermals and gloves?

The teacher was stupid to go ahead if kids were crying, but were gloves not allowed, or did children just not have them despite the fact they must spend time outdoors every day at school, and probably on the way there?

PE needn't be outside but children need not be inappropriately dressed unless it is a very deprived area indeed, or unless the school has ridiculous uniform rules actively forbidding the children from dressing properly.

Sometimes PE does have to be outside if the hall is being used for something else.

Even premiership footballers are allowed gloves ffs. Cold hands and ears are really painful, even if running and core temperature is warm.

Giddyaunt18 Fri 27-Jan-17 14:42:15
stoopido You wouldn't go out for a run in a coat thought would you?

No, but I wouldn't be going for a run in the freezing cold full stop! Children have no say and get told to go out in sub zero weather to do PE. As an adult I wouldn't choose to do that so I think it is wrong when children are forced to do.

What I'd like the OP to answer (are you there? :) ) is whether you knew your child was going to have outdoor PE that day?

Reason I ask, is that , over the years I'v worked with kids of all ages - not taking PE I hasten to add- but they used to go to school with extra layers under their uniform; so, vests or T shirts under the school blouse / shirt on cold days. A bit like footballers wearing lycra shorts under baggy shorts.

If a parent knows it's PE outside day, surely you'd tog your child out with warm gear and (even) make sure they have gloves if they'd be allowed to wear them?

No, but I wouldn't be going for a run in the freezing cold full stop! Children have no say and get told to go out in sub zero weather to do PE. As an adult I wouldn't choose to do that so I think it is wrong when children are forced to do.

As an adult I can't think of anything else I'd rather do than sit down and answer some Maths questions. So I wouldn't do it as I'm an adult.
Should kids not do this either then as they're children and don't get a say whether they want to do their maths or not?!
No. They have to do it!

Reflect for a moment and think of all the elderly in this country who are dying from the cold who have worked hard all their lives and now are on the scrapheap they often have to choose between a meal or heat I have no solutions in my mind but they deserve better.

blue do only the ones who have worked hard all their lives deserve better? Why do people feel compelled to stick that stupid and not strictly true platitude into the already self evident statement that elderly people should not be freezing to death in an allegedly first world country? The feckless and the previously cosseted elderly who never did a stroke of work and were supported by their parents/ spouses not to work don't deserve to freeze either - do they?