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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU? School says sports day on Saturday is compulsory

457 replies

weekendsareforfamily · 03/07/2018 14:55

My son is in year one, so second sports day now. Last year it was scheduled on a Saturday but the weather was bad so was cancelled and rearranged for a Tuesday afternoon. This year it is planned for this coming Saturday. My boy has a swimming lesson from 09:30, the children have to be in school for 09:00.
On the FB group chat someone has asked whether they have to go as they are working and cannot get the child to school. The receptionist has replied saying yes as its a compulsory day and we have all known about this since September last year.
Now I was planning on popping into the reception to say my boy wouldn't make it because he's swimming but now I am worried I will be told tough and that I knew about this so should be bringing him in. I am worried I will be fined if he doesn't attend but it's a Saturday?! Do I tell the truth and risk a fine? Do I lie and make up another reason? Do I lose out on the money I have already paid for his swimming lessons (we have already lost out on two from going away at last half term)? Arrrgh
WWYD? Thanks

OP posts:
CourtneyLovely · 03/07/2018 19:33

Oh sunny is making me laugh. "I don't care that you come in twice a week to listen to children read, attend every parents evening, sports evening and fair, you're on the PTA and you send lunch for the whole school daily by helicopter: you miss one sports day and we'll refuse to teach your child 😂😂😂"

When DD was at primary school I would drop her with her DGM at 8.30 on a Saturday morning, go to work then pick her up from her dance class, that her DGM had dropped her at, at 1pm. No way would she have attended sports day on a Saturday morning!

my2bundles · 03/07/2018 19:34

Deary deary me sunny, you just outed yourself big time. Time to give up.

Aridane · 03/07/2018 19:34

What an unutterably depressing thread. I’m with wombat here

FrayedHem · 03/07/2018 19:36

The rules on a managed move apply to academies. Why am I even replying to this nonsense?

imnotreally · 03/07/2018 19:37

Making kids do sports day in this weather is BU imo.

DiegoMadonna · 03/07/2018 19:38

Don't most of us do vaguely uninteresting stuff with our kids all the time on Saturday/Sunday mornings, just to give them something fun to do?

I know I don't take them to soft play / other kids birthday parties / the cinema to watch some dull disney cartoon because I'm in love with doing those things. I just like giving my children something different to do that they enjoy.

So unless they were dead set against it for some reason, then I would have no problem whatsoever taking them to sports day on a saturday morning.

mellicauli · 03/07/2018 19:39

You don't seem to have considered that your son might love going to sports day and have his parents watching while he competes with all his peers, maybe winning a medal or something. Why not just miss the swimming lesson? It's only a few quid and he might have a day to remember...unlikely to happen at a swimming lesson !!

AlexanderHamilton · 03/07/2018 19:39

I’m absolutely not going to direct sunny to the original legislation (well which specifically includes academies including free schools.

This is hilarious.

drspouse · 03/07/2018 19:40

There's a state secondary near me that has compulsory Saturday school about 3x a year.

PerspicaciaTick · 03/07/2018 19:45

I do love a proper batshit, fantastist education thread. Over the years there has been a poster who regularly spouts the most authoritarian nonsense about what her school does and which she fully supports in her extremely senior position...mostly absolute bullshit about admissions.
OP, if your DC is happy to miss sports day then just ignore it. They can ask you nicely to attend but they can't force you. They certainly can't compel working parents forego a day's work, no matter how big and important they think they are. It is a bunch of 6 year olds hopping about in sacks and dropping eggs.

Bibesia · 03/07/2018 19:47

It's really quite a simple procedure- all parents sign a contract when they sign their DC up to the school- which contains their duties towards us and our rights to take action if they're not followed.

And that "contract" is completely unenforceable and meaningless in law. Your school, however, has signed a contract with the Department for Education under which it receives substantial amounts of public funding, and if what you say is true it is clearly in breach of its funding agreement.

Bibesia · 03/07/2018 19:49

Support you child's sports day over a swimming class of course, as he will be letting down the team and house he is in.

How do you know this is either a team or house event, or that he would be letting them down if it is? For all you know, he may be hopeless at everything sports-wise.

ProfessorMoody · 03/07/2018 19:50

Sunny isn't a teacher.

There's not a chance on this earth my DC would be going to school on a Saturday unless they were free.

I pay monthly for swimming lessons and musical theatre on a Saturday. If they miss a session, I'm still charged. This costs me £200 a month and we have an extremely low income so we go without as parents to provide it.

I'm also a teacher. I wouldn't be going to school on a Saturday either. I have commitments.

KidLorneRoll · 03/07/2018 19:51

@SunnyShades you are completely - and very obviously- talking straight out of your arse. Just stop it.

Fuck would I put up with compulsory Saturday sports day.

SunnyShades · 03/07/2018 19:52

@Bibesia

I won't go into detail on here but the procedures we use for removal are carefully designed to ensure they are legal and cannot be challenged.

But that's besides the point, as most parents don't know their legal rights in any case.

Bibesia · 03/07/2018 19:54

Sunny, please let us know what school you teach at. We really need to avoid a school where a member of senior management is so illiterate as to write "Myself and the rest of the senior management team at my place would rejoice .." and "They'd have another thing coming".

As for those "transfer procedures" that you'd initiate within two weeks - what procedures would those be, given that they don't seem to be mentioned anywhere in statute, guidance, or published Academy funding agreements?

Do you really feel that wholesale lawbreaking is setting the best example to your pupils?

UnimaginativeUsername · 03/07/2018 19:56

Some of the posts on this thread may be peak mindless rule-following on MN. Of course, families should be thrown out if schools because they have better things to do that Saturday sports day in Y1! Hmm I’m choosing to see these posts as a brilliant parody (because anything else would be depressing and I refuse to believe that people think like this).

I’m also still laughing about referring to the stuff you take your kids to out if school as ‘enrichment’. Does playing minecraft/fortnite and watching hours of youtubers playing them too count as ‘enrichment’?

my2bundles · 03/07/2018 19:56

Hmmmmm you carnt go into it on here because it's make belive. I think you will find most parents actually do know their legal rights and if they don't they will look into them.

ProfessorMoody · 03/07/2018 19:57

another thing coming

😂 😂 😂

UnimaginativeUsername · 03/07/2018 19:58

I won't go into detail on here but the procedures we use for removal are carefully designed to ensure they are legal and cannot be challenged.

But that's besides the point, as most parents don't know their legal rights in any case.

It is worth repeating this in bold so we can all marvel at it. Think how awful it would be if it were actually true. Sunny is playing the villain in her dystopian account of the education system.

JayZed · 03/07/2018 19:59

Pretty sure 99%of parents know you're chatting utter shite when you give them two weeks to leave the school (and maybe the country by the way you type) if they didn't attend little Timmys bake sale Hmm

Bibesia · 03/07/2018 19:59

How interesting that Sunny's school alone has found a way to avoid the law that every other school is bound by, but she can't say what their foolproof method is. If it exists at all, I strongly suspect that the method consists of bullying parents and/or persecuting their children until they withdraw them - which is in itself illegal.

MyNameIsNotSteven · 03/07/2018 19:59

I love that posters are snippily taking the receptionist's stance that you've known about this since September but haven't questioned why on God's earth a school needs to run its sports day on a Saturday. What could they possibly be doing that's so urgent during the week that they can't fit a sports day in over the summer term?

The secondary school I work in did school trips on a Saturday for a couple of years. Takes part of the thrill away I think.

HarveySchlumpfenburger · 03/07/2018 20:00

I think it’s going to take a bit more than careful wording to ensure that what is essentially an illegal exclusion stands up to a judicial review.

BewareOfDragons · 03/07/2018 20:02

This event has been promoted a year in advance, so there should be no excuses really. There certainly wouldn't be at my place.

Bollocks.

I have a child who has been told he stands a very good chance of earning a spot on a national sports team, and mandatory competitive weekends must be attended as they make up the selection process. Those events would be new dates to our calendar, and believe me, he would be attending those over a stupid primary school sports day.

All kinds of things can happen: children join sports teams, drama clubs, orchestras, dance squads, etc., and matches and competitions dates come out as the year progresses. So knowing a school wants you to save a saturday 10 month in advance means squat when you don't have all your other scheduling information yet and can't reasonably be expected to have it.

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