To ask if you can think of an excuse which will get 11yo off PE for the rest of term?

[HelloKittyGirl]

Just that, basically. What would get her off games for a few weeks?

PE is an essential part of the curriculum so why would you want to encourage her to miss it. Let alone think of the message you are sending her, if she doesn’t want to do it let her sort it out.

Some of the responses here are ridiculous.
I think schools need to do better with PE lessons so pupils don't feel anxious about them if they seriously want everyone to develop a habit of physical activity.
Because I don't agree that skipping PE will ruin your daughters future career, chances of getting a degree, or place an unnecessary burden on the teaching staff I'm suggesting she has some soft tissue damage to her knee that requires rest from anything more strenuous than walking.
Also some posters need to relax a bit.

@WhenZoomWasJustAnIceLolly was that how you found PE at school? You might find it’s changed now.

Love the name.

I agree with everyone else - kids who can freely access parental excuses for subjects they don’t like, detentions end up being a bit of a nightmare and very unresilient

I hated PE but I was a good student and worked hard. Doing PE in the last year gave me a lot of stress and a get out of PE letter helped me to focus on my subjects and not dread the days that we had PE. My mum just wrote a note for sore knee problems and that did the trick.

I have read your replies HelloKittyGirl and I'm going to tell you this.

My Uncle says as a child, their DM got his sister, my DM, off from doing PE at school and my DM used to spend the time in the library, which she ''preferred'' to be doing...

Fast forward to today, my DM is well into her 80's and wheel chair bound. The hospital where she lives has to use a medical hoist to be able to get her to stand, move from the WC to toilet and back again, and also to assist with getting her in and out of bed.

Ever since I can remember, Doctors have been telling her to exercise more, which she didn't. The Doctor was always wrong!

I have sat with her in one of our major hospitals after a fall, to hear specialists say she needs to exercise more. Once back at the hospital where she lives, she ''forgets'' this advice and if reminded of it, says they are wrong! These are specialists who have spent years studying to get where they are career wise.

I have also experienced DM, getting craftier as she gets older and if she doesn't want to do something, she out right will not do it. So at a young age, Mum was taught by my Grandmother by letting off her PE, that if she didn't want to do something, she didn't have too. And that has stuck with her for her entire life!

My DM won't even move her feet to put her slippers on, she expects that I, or a nurse, will bend over and do it for her while she looks on. However, while getting herself along in the wheelchair, she is quite capable of using her feet to ''walk'' the chair along.

She now has a permanent sore on one of her ankles so is now wearing a pressure stocking. It's not healing and her lower leg is slowly turning purple. I suggested to her she needs to start exercising, and the hospital agrees. However with the chair-based cycle device, she could use, she will not try to turn the pedals...

So before you start making excuses for your Daughter to get out of PE, think about what else you are setting up for her to avoid long term. Sometimes you have to accept that some things are done for more than one reason, and its not always obvious why.

Participation, engagement and social cooperation for starters.

Asthma and vertigo were mine but I actually have them.

What ever you go for just be careful the school don't end up asking for a letter from her doctor as proof, say if you said it was tennis elbow.

I hated PE too at school.

But I think teaching your daughter to lie to get out of something she doesn’t want to do is terrible parenting. Surely it would be better for her to go and speak to the teacher?

Can a pupil just refuse to do PE at school nowadays?

@blyn72

Can a pupil just refuse to do PE at school nowadays?

Not in my daughters secondary school .

I think you are wrong to pander to your daughter in this way.
She needs to learn that, in life, we frequently have to do things we would prefer not to.
So long as your DD is not being bullied by the sport teacher or actively incapable of doing sport, then she should just suck it up as a life lesson and get on with it.

It's appalling to teach her that she can lie to get out of doing things - what kind of moral code is that to give your child?!

You would not have been able to skip PE in the oldie days in my case, such as the 1950 era, unless you had a broken leg and the like. We simply had to do inside and outside stuff, Outside was net ball, and rounders,and hockey, whatever the weather, Inside was leaping over the horse,that it was called, and junping over a high box thing, and walking along a wooden plank thing for balance training,.. I personally hated all this stuff, but you just had to do it, but I am not sporty at all. My late mum would never have written to the school,to get me off at all. She would have said,, if this is what you have to do at school, just do it. and that was that.

Are you serious? What sort of mother are you????

This! Bloody hell! I didn't like PE either, but didn't ask my mother to help me get out of it as I knew what her reaction would be. We all have to do things we don't want to do and don't like, and it's better to learn that as a child than as an adult.

[quote SE13Mummy]@catchingzzzeds "Our school have a good system where they must still get changed into kit and be wherever the lesson is taking place"

My DC2 with their broken limb has just said a new PE teacher is bringing in this rule and the consequence for not getting changed is a detention. Getting dressed is really hard for DC2 at the moment as it is. Walking to school carrying a PE kit, and then carrying it around all day (no lockers or anywhere to leave the kit) is going to make a difficult, painful time all the more difficult and painful. DC2 wants to be able to join in with PE but can't because of the broken limb. To be made to get changed into their kit doesn't feel helpful or kind. They've attended PE lessons without being able to join in and it's pretty obvious the injury hasn't been made up! Whilst I understand that requiring students to get changed if it's believed that they are trying to be elsewhere is one strategy, I can't see its benefits to children with broken limbs![/quote]
School has a 'duty of care' to your child. Forcing a child to do something that causes pain is not in their or the school's interests.

Ask the school for the risk assessment the PE teacher has carried out for your child. Until then your child will not be taking in a PE kit due to the difficulties and pain caused. Your child will also not be attending any detentions or other sanctions.

OP

Something that needs investigations is a good option.

Back in the days of riding dinosaurs to school when we took options we were supposed to include a PE session but in the PE teacher's words, "If you are going to forget your kit one week, be ill the next etc don't pick it as an option".

[quote randomchap]Why doesn't she want to do it? I understand preferring to do something else, but getting your mum to lie to the teachers is a bit much.

It'd be far better for her for you to get to the bottom of her issues than giving her an excuse to avoid it.

Too many girls drop out of PE, this can have negative effects for them in the long term. A good article here

www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/nov/08/girls-engaging-school-sports-solution[/quote]
That article was interesting.

PE was very much 'pink' and 'blue' at my secondary school. Girls never played rugby or cricket and boys never played netball. Girls were predominantly made to play team sports with no free choice and boys were allowed free choice, e.g. rugby or athletics. Boys were coached and told how they could achieve more (without discriminating), whereas girls only received coaching if they appeared to have talent (so the gap widened further between talented pupils and the weaker participants).

There was very little theory or training given. I thought I was terrible at everything (although I enjoyed having a go when we had the rare chance to do athletics), however it turns out that I'm actually quite good at things like running, etc. as long as I build up stamina. We were thrown into activities like running cross country without working up to it, so many of us ended up dropping out, feeling sick, having stitches, walking and ending the lesson late, etc... you'd have thought this would flag the need for buulding up stamina but the staff didn't seem to learn. Due to this approach, I ended up assuming that everyone should naturally be able to run 2k easily without training, therefore I and many other girls 'couldn't run'.
Bullying of people (me) who were no good at PE, especially at team sports, was the norm and teachers just turned a blind eye.

I ended up feeling physically sick and shaky on PE days and I'd say it tainted my entire experience of secondary school education... In no other area of education would you be thrown in the deep end and expected to either sink or swim. If you struggled with maths or science, for example, the teacher would focus on areas of struggle and coach you through it. With PE, the teachers seemed to adopt a 'no good = don't bother' approach.

Anyway, I've gone off on a bit of a tangent, but I thought I'd add my experience as a bit of insight into a) why many girls don't 'like' PE and b) what needs to change in order to get girls to participate with enjoyment. I realise it's just the view of one person, but others I've spoken to have expressed similar views.

To clarify:

*sick and shaky due to anxiety

(If only there was an edit button...)

Absolutely agree that kids need to be taught sometimes to get on with it but if my kids came to me in adulthood and said they were doing something they hated, felt humiliated in, caused deep anxiety I would tell them to make changes and not to keep on with it.

Not everything you're taught in school or the way you're treated in school is healthy and good for you.

Don't teach your child that it's ok to lie!

Teach them that sometimes in life they have to do things that they don't want to!

I was shit at sports with anything to do with a ball and loathed PE due to poor eyesight. Never being picked, the humiliation! I thought I hated exercise. It took me years to realise I just don’t enjoy sport-there are loads of other was to e physically active and if schools maybe encouraged this in their Physical Education lessons, they wouldn’t have problems with people wanting to drop out.
And skiving PE never hurt my career!
Maybe get your daughter to talk to an approachable PE teacher. They surely want their pupils to have reasonable engagement with the lessons?

I stopped doing PE after Y9, just never took my kit & the teachers never bothered. Ds didn't do any PE from the end of Y8, he has a problem with his legs & I just sent a note at the beginning of the year to excuse him. He probably could have done some of it but he hated it like I did. It's time schools accepted some pupils just aren't interested in sport & let them not waste the time but attend other subjects.

@Nat6999 is your son not doing any sport at all? All children should be doing some form of exercise for health reasons.

I probably should've been honest with my PE teachers and gave them a performance review that basically they were lazy (putting on a Cindy Crawford dvd is not a PE lesson) they needed to consider different students needs and capabilities - one size doesn't always fit all, yes mixed PE may make your job easier but it's scarring me and also you're putting off [from exercise] a whole section of teenage girls

I think it’s a shame that people are projecting their hatred of PE onto their children. Things have changed so much. I’m a teacher and our PE staff are lovely, really approachable and want the best for for the children. It’s not just about sport it’s about the mental and physical health boost of exercise. Setting up good habits. There should be something for everyone in this day and age.

I loathed PE at school, would have loved extra time in the library with my books. I walked approx 6 miles a day and sea swim, am slim fit active and in my sixties now so I don't think ducking out of PE at every available opportunity did me any harm.

@Joystir59 but you were doing plenty of exercise anyway by the sounds of things? So at least you were getting all those benefits. Also, PE teaching has changed hugely over the years.