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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

"Mixed gender" sports teams

28 replies

LovelyBath77 · 22/06/2018 20:42

Primary school has decided to mix the school sports teams from next year. Currently there are seperate ones for girls and boys, e.g. cricket, football and the like.

AIBU to wonder why when it's been like this for years and seems to work OK? they are starting to call it 'gender' as well...

OP posts:
Buzzlightyearsbumchin · 22/06/2018 20:45

Good. Primary aged sports should be about ability not sex imo.

Mixed teams will probably help the children who feel transgender/mixed up about their gender as well. It means they aren't forced to choose.

Metoodear · 22/06/2018 20:46

Once they get in to the older years you will simply find the boys dominate and the girls stop wanting to play

By the time I got to 10 most of the boys were stronger and faster

Original poster
LovelyBath77 · 22/06/2018 20:46

Ok, it's just a bit new.

OP posts:
Original poster
LovelyBath77 · 22/06/2018 20:47

It says they are still entering single sex for competitions though, sounds quite complicated.

OP posts:
rosesandflowers1 · 22/06/2018 21:04

Primary aged sports should be about ability not sex imo.

Mixed teams will probably help the children who feel transgender/mixed up about their gender as well. It means they aren't forced to choose.

This, honestly.

In primary not much difference between the girls and the boys physically, it'll be mostly about ability.

And nice for the gender-questioning kids too.

I daresay you won't really notice in a couple of years!

Thehop · 22/06/2018 21:05

It’s always weird when it’s new but I honestly think this is a positive move overall.

Gileswithachainsaw · 22/06/2018 21:07

I think they should he separated from juniors.

Would catch anyone starting to develope early on and give girls a fairer chance in the later years.

UpManagement · 22/06/2018 21:09

I would be happy with that up to year three.

Stinkywink · 22/06/2018 21:11

Some of the girls are stronger and taller in year six even. My son played in a mixed football team in years 5/6 and some of the girls were much better than their male peers.

Afonavon · 22/06/2018 21:12

Our primary’s teams have been mixed since forever. Never though that they wouldn’t to be honest. DS was in the netball team and rugby team along with both males and females. Actually my own primary had both girls and boys on the football teams. I didn’t know that some schools segregated by sex.

DrawingLife · 22/06/2018 21:14

At primary age I'm surprised there are schools who segregate the kids.

SlowlyShrinking · 22/06/2018 21:15

My son’s 9 and he’s getting to be stronger than me, an adult woman who’s fairly strong and well-built and taller than him, so I’m not sure him playing against girls would be particularly fair or safe (depending on the sport /game being played, of course).

NeverLovedElvis · 22/06/2018 21:17

Mixed gender I would have no issue with.
Mixed sex, not so much. Why should my daughters be placed at such a disadvantage ?

Anon12345ABC · 22/06/2018 21:19

Apart from the relay teams, all the sports at our primary is mixed sex (I bloody hate mixed gender as that's not accurate at all but what everyone seems to be saying these days). Tag rugby, football, netball, hockey, all mixed. Kids think nothing of it (and I ignore the idiotic comments from my family about why does DS do netball when it's a girls sport). I see no issue with this at all.

AssassinatedBeauty · 22/06/2018 21:23

Surely the inter-school competitions will still be for single sex teams, which makes this a bit of an odd thing to do.

letsallhaveanap · 22/06/2018 21:23

I think they should mix genders for many sports... not contact sports however or sports which exclusively rely on physical strength in which boys are obviously usually at an advantage...
Non contact, team sports, are totally fine to be gender blind however.

Gileswithachainsaw · 22/06/2018 21:26

It's not just about strength or size though is it

iamawoman · 22/06/2018 21:30

its sex not gender!!

AssassinatedBeauty · 22/06/2018 21:32

I'd like to know whether the school considered any impact on girls participation before making this decision. Will they be monitoring this, and will they be open to change if there are any negative consequences for girls?

Aragog · 22/06/2018 21:35

We decided to do mixed sex races this year for KS1 (we are only infants) - couldn't see any reason why we needed single sex races at this age. We did some last year and some separate. This year all were missed. Worked well.

Don't think it makes a difference at primary age; the boys get an advantage when they hit puberty and have their hormone boost - but this isn't normally until secondary ime. At our nearby junior school it is the girls who are head and shoulders above the boys.

ForgivenessIsDivine · 22/06/2018 21:43

blimey... I have spent the last 4 years battling the school to give girls and boys equal coaching time as the mixed approach was not working. Finally we have increased participation of girls in sport, with the support of a local football team who also introduced a girls only section in their club. Thankfully, other football teams in the area have followed suit and things have really grown. We have gone from having about 30 girls playing locally to having several hundred.

On a smaller scale, our local hockey team has done something similar, adopted a focus on girls and female membership of the club has doubled in a year. We are not in the UK so the hockey comparison would not be the same as in England.

Mixing boys and girls for competitive sports where they will compete in single sex competitions is a bad idea.

TeenTimesTwo · 22/06/2018 21:48

Mixed sex at primary is fine unless the competitions they play in specify single sex. Mixed sex enables smaller schools to field teams they might not otherwise fill.

They have no business calling it gender though, given that sport is split later on by sex due to physical differences.

Plainlycrackers · 22/06/2018 21:53

Wow they are behind the times... hi 5 netball is amazing, my 15 year old played it in primary... 7 players rotating every quarter so 5 on the court at a time (no wing attack/defence) and up to 2 on court can be boys... they loved it and one of the best players in my DDs team was a boy. Mixed sex hockey is v popular for juniors in clubs especially under 12 but also right up to under 15. Touch rugby is a mixed sex sport right through the teens even at international level... the gender label is a bit unnecessary though... in hockey it is only when it is one sex that it is named so U12s girls or U12s boys but just U12s if it’s mixed. Using the word Mixed would be more than enough though nothing is totally sufficient really.

iamawoman · 22/06/2018 21:57

Testosterone levels of boys T levels of girls
6 mos.-9 yrs. < 7-20 6 mos.-9 yrs. < 7-20
10-11 yrs. < 7-130 10-11 yrs. < 7-44
12-13 yrs. < 7-800 12-16 yrs. < 7-75

ForgivenessIsDivine · 22/06/2018 22:37

It's not just about ability, but about participation.

The statistics around participation in team sports and the drop out rates among girls are woeful.

I do not believe that creating fewer girls only opportunities to try out sport will increase participation.