School club fairness

[Mumsjc2013]

So I’m looking for some opinions as I’m not sure how I feel about this.

A list of clubs went out at my DS school - all apart from ballet are for year 1 and up (he is in reception) which is fine. I would like him to do football but starting in year 1 was fine with me.

I am, however, on the dreaded Facebook parents page. Gradually I started noticing the odd comment about children doing football club - ‘what do they need’, ‘do any other parents watch’ etc.

Obviously, a little bemused, I contacted the school office to confirm what year group football club was for. After waiting over a day for a response I was told “the football is run by an outside group and the person in charge may have made some exceptions to allow some reception children join”. The club is not advertised at the school in this way.

Is this not unfair? I thought schools subscribe to equal opportunities and I feel this is unacceptable.

Am I being unreasonable?

This setback will no doubt hinder his Premier League career. Perhaps you could do some crossing practice with him, help him keep up?

If the club is external, then the school probably have no control over who they admit. It won't be schools fault that some parents are a bit pushy and ring the club asking if the year groups are fixed - if the club has space they are unlikely to turn down paying parents.

I agree that if the club was advertised through the school as yr 2 or above, if additional places were available for reception they should have also been made available for all to apply. We rely on out parents FB page. Our school is getting better but communication isn't great. We have been given a date for a project to be in, but it is an inset day. My daughter and another child have said they are dressing up for book day. School haven't said anything yet. They have told us that there are no after school clubs via a tweet - not everyone has twitter. They are not sent a text, and we have not had a hsnuary newsletter yet, let alone a feb one.

In the nicest possible way OP, calm down. You are still in your child's first year of schooling, and if you continue getting so worked up about things, you'll end up being the parent that cries wolf and gets ignored when you do have genuine issues.

Waiting a day for a response about a non essential query from school is no big deal. Schools have a million things going on, many of which are far more important than an after school club.

The school were speaking truthfully when they said it's run by an outside agency and nothing to do with them. They pass the information on to parents, but if you start going up and yelling about 'equal opportunity' because a reception aged child didn't get into football club, then you are going to find the school ends up stopping these things altogether. They are just too much hassle to try and facilitate them when parents are acting like pork chops about who does and who doesn't get in.

Contact the football group yourself, see if he can get in. Otherwise, contact one of the thousands of other junior football clubs that seem to exist and sign your child up for one of those.

Actually, as a governor I would expect any company we use for clubs to abide by what we consider fair access. I don’t think you are being unreasonable. Rules are rules, and except in the case of PP children who might get priority for spaces if an activity would be particularly beneficial, it’s for everyone or no one. If it says no Reception, that means no reception. If it says 5 or over only, then it means just that, too.

Why can't he do ballet instead if you want him to do a class?

Sigh.

OP, I don't know why so many posters are being such dickheads. I would be irritated if my child was missing out, and I imagine most of those posting condescending replies would be too. Contact the football group directly and see if you can get him in.

I would try to avoid being That Mum that goes into school and kicks off over something relatively minor (but irritating nonetheless) so early on in your sons school life.

YANBU - that sounds frustrating, but the thing I found about school is that although there is a LOT of information to process about everything from reading books to show and tell, not to mention fundraising and school discos etc, there is also a LOT of flying by the seat of the pants from the school. The support staff in particular seem to have SO much on that things do get overlooked and sometimes things aren't as clear as they could be and it's not deliberate or anyone's fault, just what happens when there's so much to do, so little time to do it and SO much potential for unexpected issues to pop up at any moment.

School might have been told by the outside company that it was YR1. Company then allowed exceptions or changed their rules so not necessarily the schools fault.

My sons went/currently go to Little Kickers. Our franchise does weekday and weekend classes. Runs from 18mths- 7 yrs.

Hey OP. It sounds like you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed in general- maybe posting elsewhere on MN would be a good idea as there are a lot of supportive members here. AIBU is a bit more cut throat and you have asked and been fairly told you are kind of being unreasonable. Could you join your school parent group to feel more involved and informed?