...to think that this is sex discrimination?

[SignoraStronza]

I was idly chatting to a coach/friend at DD's rugby club, who mentioned that a local private school is going to be going into her (future) secondary comp to offer additional sports coaching. What's in it for them? Apparently one of the reasons is that they're looking to cream off some of the sporting talent and offer scholarships - fair enough i suppose.

DD overheard this, sounded rather enthusiastic about the idea and so I idly had a look at the sports scholarship application form on the school's website.

Only BOYS could apply for Rugby (and cricket) scholarships, but all could apply for hockey athletics, tennis, golf and swimming.
A bit shit really. DD lives and breathes rugby. She's currently training with both the girls U13s and mini U11 teams up to three times a week, really enjoys it and has found her 'thing'. So to have her bubble burst because of archaic ideas that rugby is for boys made her rather crestfallen.

She absolutely plays a blinder in and against U11 teams consisting of all boys + her, and has come up against some rather crappy opinions from one of the dads already, even though she's a actually rather bloody good.

Would you mention this to the schools involved?

I love the way that private schools can maintain a charitable status and continue to be discriminatory.

Scotland?!

No. Yorkshire but school league encompass Lancashire etc

Sorry, don’t answer, that’s private.

I’m guessing north if not that far north though. You’re right it’s geographic and Scotland and some other areas of the UK do have a more thriving state school rugby system, but I’d still consider it niche in schools in the country as a whole (England that is, very different in wales Scotland and Ireland obviously).

Even though only boys can apply for rugby, maybe they offer an equal number of scholarships to girls and boys, just in different sports. Which would be fair enough.

YANBU

Dd loves rugby too, they get split into girls and boys for PE and do six weeks of various activities throughout the year, so the girls would have six weeks of swimming while the boys had six weeks of hockey, then they’d switch, in y7 they were supposed to get 6 weeks of rugby, didn’t happen, they got 13 weeks of dance and one week of rugby because the boys kicked such up a fuss when switch time came that they were given rugby back.

Pe schedule for Y8 the girls are not even getting any rugby time while the boys have two sessions of six weeks, it’s a sexist schedule overall, while the boys have rugby, the girls have dance, the boys have street running, the girls have gymnastics and there’s no switching this year. I’ve wrote to school and no response.

It wouldn’t be too bad if she could play outside of school but again her school team is for boys, and the knee within travelling distance for me are all male teams too. Dd looked into starting something for teenage girls but was criticised for wanting to excluding boys!!

Dds school is north east and isnt private

I should add, plenty of the girls wanted to do the rugby in PE in y7 and they loved the first session and were all disappointed when their remaining five sessions were taken off them and given to the boys. Most of the boys didn’t want to do dance and the teacher just switched them round. A few girls mentioned it wasn’t fair but were told not to backchat.

I can’t speak for all year groups at dds school, but in hers at least, the lack of female players is because they are not given the opportunity to learn it, as had it taken off them to give to boys in y7 and then not given it at all in y8. Perhaps if they were then they’d have built enough skills to feel confident starting their own team outside of school.

A level playing field? Equality of opportunity?

But that’s not what would happen, is it. Not at that school. It’s ridiculous to suggest such a thing.

Those things can be found elsewhere, it’s about picking the right battle and a private school which has no girl’s rugby team is not the right battle to pick.

It's really sad my eldest went to mixed boarding school approx 115 of each sex in each year. Girls rugby team in every year!! DD loves it and is good.

Those things can be found elsewhere, it’s about picking the right battle and a private school which has no girl’s rugby team is not the right battle to pick

It very much is the right battle if the OP's DD wants to go there. I picked that battle in 1997/1998 and it was incredibly rewarding.

Shitwit, that's really unfair :( Would it be worth taking it up with the governors?