to expect DS's school not to blatantly brown nose "celebrity" parents at Xmas Concert?

[charlieandlola]

DS is in a mixed independent school, and two of his class mates have "famous" dads. One is a current premiership footballer, the other is a retired ex international rugby player. There are 10 girls and 8 boys in DS's class. In DS's nativity play, the daughters of two said "celebs" were playing Mary, and the Chief Star. Chief Star was sitting up on a raised platform, with all the other girls sitting at her feet, Mary was naturally in the middle, with all shepherds, wise men etc sitting around her( naturally, in a nativity). They are playing their roles for the nativity plays for nursery, 2 x reception classes and 2 x year 1 classes, so no other girls get to be Mary or the Star.
After play the parents have a singing competition, ladies v gents etc with a prize given to the best lady or man in the audience Guess who was awarded the prizes? Mr Ex Rugby Player, and Mrs Premiership Footballer. What a surprise. I have come away feeling most and about it the school seemingly falling over itself to pay homage to its "celebrity" parents. The cult of "celebrity" gets on my nerves.

Never mind charlieandlola at least whatever your child achieves he achieves it through merit and hard work and doesn't get phoney awards due to who his parents are.

It's valued more when you truly deserve it. Those other children will go through their whole lives probably thinking the world owes them a living.

would question the whole ethos of the school myself

the best lady or man in the audience? what did they have to do to get that?

sing - it was a singing competition...

Where they any good?

Where they the best?

It is possiblt that this is entireely co-incidence.

I was accused of doing this a couple of weeks ago. I won;t go into details as I bound by confidentiality but basically parent complained that the child with a main part had a parent who was in the theatrical profession.

However, although I was aware of this, the teacher who cast the play had a. never met Dad as Mum usually collects and b. had no idea who Dad was anyway.

sorry must get glasses

Yes, it could be a complete coincidence. Mary certainly looked happy in her role. I hope that I am just being cynical, but to me and a few other mums sitting near me, it was more

did you look like this?

If these kids were the only kids playing the same roles for all 5 plays (or however it was organised), then that would look a bit odd - 5 different Josephs yet the same Mary would look like brown-nosing.

But otherwise I think that you're probably reading far too much into it. If you are certain that their celeb is the only possible reason, then chill out and be grateful that there will be less presents for you to sort out at PTA events in future. I think that this will be a small price to pay given that the celeb parents will end up doing more than their fair share of being in goal for the Summer fete, coming up with free tickets for raffle prizes etc.

So who is the rugby player then? Is he English? What club does he play for, just give me a few clues...

can see how you might be annoyed - casting might be an accident but the prize thing? thats just cheesy.

My mum taught in similar school with various star children over the year -have to say if anything from what she said she was usually less than impressed with them.

"They are playing their roles for the nativity plays for nursery, 2 x reception classes and 2 x year 1 classes, so no other girls get to be Mary or the Star."
whaaaat??? they have the same role for FIVE YEARS!?!
what is this, Crazy Mad School???

Exactly hatrick.- they are playing the main parts in this years nativity for nursery, reception and year 1's plays this year( 5 in all, over 3 days) - not lifetime casting! The josephs change depending on which year group/class it is.
OO - love the grapes, although I am not jealous, just find it annoying and cringeworthy. My ds wouldn't have been cast as Mary or the Star, so I am not a diva mummy feeling upset that my ds has been looked over. The girls themselves are very nice( as are the parents), and I don't begrudge them their moment in the spotlight, but this has made me question the values of the school,and left me feeling quite sceptical about them.
The "spot prizes" going to the parents too just put the tin hat on it for me - I had no one else to tell once I got home, so decided to tell MN!

Certain children in DCs school always get the best parts because they have a parent on the board of governors or who works in the school. It bugs the hell out of me.

It used to get on my nerves at dd1s school that the son of the chair of governers was chosen for EVERYTHING. He was okay but so were lots of other kids.

On the other hand my poor dd will probably deliberately not get picked for a main part at Stagecoach so we can't be seen to be showing favouritism.

I was Chair of Governors for 6 years. During that time my children were never chosen for anything - "as it might look like favouritism". So, as well as hours sat outside the head's office while I did paperwork, waiting for me at meetings, rushed teas so that I could get back to school, being present when I was harangued by other parents, mine were never treated specially. I felt I made a real contribution to the school, for the benefit of all the children - but when I read threads like this I sometimes wish I hadn't bothered.

Aaaagh - my daughter is Mary this year, for her half year's nativity, and I am Chair of the PTA. I don't think there is any favouritism being shown in this instance, and I do hope that other parents are not put out about it either...

It is, of course remotely possible that the daughter of the chair of the PTA might be quite a good actress?

Am trying (and failing) to restrain myself from saying that if my child's school genuinely had the ethos of the school in the OP, my child would be out of there so fast that his/her feet wouldn't touch the ground!