This will probably sound like a storm in a teacup, but thanks for letting me sound off about something that has really upset my daughter.
During my children's years at state primary school I have never once commented on their inclusion or otherwise on various sports teams. I have just bitten my lip and explained to the children that life is sometimes unfair.
Until yesterday.
Here's the background. My daughter is a tiny, skinny thing. Very little upper body strength but she is fast and coordinated. Last year, then a year two, she competed on an athletics team against year three girls (because the school didn't have enough y3s). She won skipping and jumping. I was really proud of her grit. It was a scorching hot day and the older girls were much bigger than her.
This year she is the only girl on the team to have been given just one event--throwing the ball! She is really upset and can't understand why other girls have been given the events she won last year. I don't think she's become any less able in the last year.
Both the other girls chosen to do the skipping and jumping are a lot bigger than her so I'd imagine they'd be able to wham that ball much farther.
Because my daughter was crying about this (very rare) I had a word with the teacher involved, who is a bit disorganised and didn't even keep a list of who'd competed in what last year and the results. She says she'll do a run/jump-off next week to see how my daughter does. But I'm worried she'll forget (she is a bit bad at remembering things) so I wrote a reminder on the permission slip.
I'm sure she thinks I'm being a pushy middle-class mother. My children have no problem about not being chosen if there are better people available but they really struggle when they think there's some engineering going on. Or just bad admin.