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?

@HelloKittyGirl

I don’t have a problem with it to be honest. I never liked PE either and she already gets plenty of exercise walking to and from school everyday. I’m not worried about her fitness levels. If she’d rather spend the time in the library doing homework, I’m happy with that.

Wow. Your going to lie to get your child out of something just because you don't have a problem with it?

Is that the life lesson you want to teach her?

What makes you feel she is more special than other kids who have other actual problems but don't get to skip a subject because of it.

Shame on you, OP

My husband is a PE teacher. He will wax lyrical about the benefits of PE on the curriculum from improved physical and mental health to resilience and working as a team.

you may think your child is slim and fit but if they don’t have at least 30 minutes a day cardio then they aren’t improving their fitness and will encourage them to be sedentary their whole lives.

My DCs (10 and 7) play football for outside teams, run 5k 3 times a week, swim, play tennis in the summer. If your DC is doing that outside of school I could see your point. Waking to school and back - not cardio!

You know, there are lots of things in life that we have to do without particularly wanting to which seem unfair: paying taxes, getting up at 6.00 to get the bus to work in the rain, picking up the workload of a sick colleague, the list is endless. But carry on mom, set the tone. Then when in a few years your child's manager at work asks her to take part in a project/allocates an assignment or just to work a bit later you can bail her out of that as well.

It’s part of the curriculum, you can’t just opt out because you feel like it. What would happen if everyone did that?

It won't be for a few weeks, she'll want the same next term.

She should be attending, it's not a pick and mix with school lessons!

I didn’t like PE either OP - but (just food for thought) you can make lifelong friends doing sport and once I got to Cambridge, loads and loads of people were extremely sporty, but I was useless at most of it.

I really regret my parents not emphasising sport from a young age. Even now, my mum has the warped idea that you can’t actually be academic and sporty.

Aside from which, it’s disrespectful to a teacher to lie for your daughter to get out of that subject.

Life isn’t all academics.

[quote worriedatthemoment]@mummykel16 really how
Use threatening behaviour yourself ?
If you seriously know of a teacher bullying your report it so that its dealt with and that person no longer bulies [/quote]
How lovely to live in your naive world.

Mine was ongoing colicky hips that were painful, then progressed to requesting as a free period instead of watching everyone else do pe while I sat in a pe kit (school imagined I would revise/do homework). Occasional excuses were: period pain, migraines that could be triggered, stomach ache, body confidence/self esteem, general trauma/depression/stress. There were a few more too, some genuine, some not!

School Librarian here. Can’t abide this attitude of ‘stick them in the library, they’ll be no trouble in there.’ Actually, yes, it’s a blooming nuisance because any time I get between having classes in the library I need to spend running around school getting my printing and copying done, taking my orders to the finance office, collecting orders that have arrived, dealing with post, phoning parents in privacy away from little ears, the list goes on… when students are unexpectedly placed with me it means I’m tied to supervising them and all my other work gets put on hold when my ‘free’ periods are already few and far between. So yes, you ARE asking for extra support and supervision and frankly being a pain in the posterior because school worth it’s salt would let a child sit unsupervised for a whole lesson. But as long as daughter dearest is ok, eh?

@motherrunner

My husband is a PE teacher. He will wax lyrical about the benefits of PE on the curriculum from improved physical and mental health to resilience and working as a team.

you may think your child is slim and fit but if they don’t have at least 30 minutes a day cardio then they aren’t improving their fitness and will encourage them to be sedentary their whole lives.

My DCs (10 and 7) play football for outside teams, run 5k 3 times a week, swim, play tennis in the summer. If your DC is doing that outside of school I could see your point. Waking to school and back - not cardio!

I bet your DH enjoyed PE at school?

I also bet he wasn't forced to do PE in what is basically underwear, most girls seem to have to wear tiny shorts or skorts.

You need 30 mins exercise 3 times a week, not every day to keep fit. And that exercise is anything that gets you out of breath.

My daughter sprained her ankle and was on crutches for three or four weeks. They didn't let her go to the library - she had to go to games and keep score or whatever.
Walking isn't enough exercise, and allowing her to not go just because is setting a bad precedent.

I’m sure many pupils would prefer to miss a class they don’t like so they can do their homework … ds certainly would prefer homework was done in class time

@ivykaty44

There are reasons that PE is really important

better academic performance
increased student physical health
It teaches children key life skills
It offers the chance for them to relax, release pent up emotions and to spend time having fun with their friends
Students who play sports are better able to concentrate and maintain focus
Students who exercise regularly have a better quality of sleep
Physical exercise helps children relieve stress and anxiety
improve their teamwork and leadership skills.

Utter bobbins.

Looking back at my classmates the bitchy sporty girls were not particularly successful academically nor in later life.

And I've never been angrier than after gym and exercise classes. None of these endorphins, i came out wanting to smash plates and punch people. Anything but relaxing. Decided it was best, and safer for those around me, to give it a miss!

PE was never 'fun with friends' until my friend and I realised that we didn't actually have to do anything. Fielding in rounders was an excellent chance for a catch up chat as was being Goal Keeper and Goal Defence in hockey. Just because there is a ball flying towards you doesn't mean you have to chase it. You can duck and / or ignore it. Sorry miss, didn't see it, it was too fast.

A long country hike is a completely different matter, but they don't offer that at school.

I think the endless team sports are the problem at school. I read a report donkeys years ago re girls and sport in schools. Some had the option to dump hockey, netball etc in favour of individual stuff like dance, and Jane Fonda type classes. Five years after leaving school much higher %ages of girls were still active.

My friend's son is awful at team sports and hates school PE but is an excellent skier, surfer and dingy sailor. He also runs.

OP, I got out of swimming for a 'chlorine allergy' - school swimming was as bad as the rest of school sport.

My DM would also let me miss some Fridays later in school when it was double art and double PE in the afternoon.

In your DD's shoes I'd have taken the detention for a forgotten PE kit if I could also miss PE.

I'm with the others though, i wouldn't make up an illness for fear of tempting fate.

@Joystir59

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.

I'm guessing the OPs daughter isn't walking that far, or sea swimming. It's a rubbish precedent to set in year 7, and I agree with others that the DD will likely ask for excuses next term too.

I managed to skip hockey every winter from Y8-Y11 by having a headache or a cold every single week

I went to a private school but they never contacted my parents and I would just sit in the library and read.

I'm so surprised by all these posters who apparently never ever skipped PE and who think it's all lovely and wholesome and full of team spirit

PE at my school was the same group of girls being picked for everything while everyone else was stuck on the sidelines doing shit all.

@SheilaWilcox

This has to be a joke, so I am going to assume you're an 11yr old looking for ideas.

If you think universities ONLY look at results then you are very naive. Lots of kids from selective schools will get A's. What will set them apart will be their character, integrity, extra curricular activities, testimonials from teachers.

Money can't buy you health. No matter what high-flying career you envisage she will do, her health and wellbeing will be important for her entire life. The time to get good habits and priorities in life is now.

I think you'd be really letting her down by letting her 'wimp out' of things she doesn't want to do.

So hating football / rugby / competitive sport will prevent you getting onto a physics degree course? What tosh.

Extra curriculars such as volunteering, charity work, and physics reading were just fine thanks.

And as for long term well being, tell that to my super sporty (overly sporty) dad who died of a heart attack at 46, and one of his brothers who struggled to walk from his 40s as his ankles were damaged from playing football. The healthiest one now is the one who spent his teens smoking behind the bike sheds!

Oh, and as an adult I now dog walk for a living so I'm outside for 5-6 hours a day in all weathers

I love my job and exercise but school PE was a special kind of torture, especially hockey and swimming. I regularly had very long periods to get me out of swimming lessons too

I also hated P-E at school, but now love exercising. P-E shouldn’t be awful - at our school we have a dance studio and bikes. If the weather is decent, a group will go for a walk. There’s no excuse for making it unbearable. However, I really disagree with you allowing your DD to opt out - she’s likely to become entitled and a real snowflake, if she avoids what she doesn’t like constantly. She never develop resilience, confidence and grit, IMO.

I would have loved it if my mum had got me off PE as I hated it.
But it taught me a valuable lesson which academic kids need to learn - other people are better at things than you are. My DC2 would love it too but there is no way I would do this. All you are doing is letting her think that she can opt out of things she doesn’t like. As an adult she’ll be able to opt out of many things but not all. Best she learns now and knuckles down and does her best and gets the exercise. I learned to view it as exercise and a lesson in self control as I was being useless on the netball pitch and shouted at by the teacher.

@HelloKittyGirl

Bandaging up a limb or even finger for weeks is going a bit far though.

I’ll have a look into tennis elbow…. Thank you.

Telling her it's ok to lie to avoid something she doesn't like doing at school is going a bit far tbh

This thread has brought back so many funny memories for me of how I dodged PE for years. I remember in junior school writing a note from my nan (was too scared to do one from my dad in case I got found out) and signing it from 'Betty' 😂. I used to hide in various places around the school until I was sure they had all left the changing rooms then just have a wander around. I don't think you should lie for her though OP, she needs to come up with her own methods to avoid it, it's a good opportunity to build problem solving and handwriting forgery skills.

@Hercisback

It's not about whether you have a problem with it, or if she'd rather be in the library. You're reinforcing the message that if she doesn't like a subject she doesn't have to do it. You wouldn't write a note to get her out of maths lessons. PE is exactly the same.

In our school you don't get to sit in the library if you aren't participating. You are a ref, or score keeper, or line judge. Funnily enough not many kids don't do it, because they know they'll be doing part of the lesson anyway.

All of this^

Life sucks and sometimes you have to do things you don't like. Better to learn it now than when you've quit your 5th job in a row after a couple of weeks because you don't like it. Better now than not going to lectures at uni because you don't like it and then failing the exam.
PE is important.

Aren't you building her up to be the sort of person who just takes sick days off work willy nilly

@MermaidEyes me too - I was bullied incessantly in PE by teachers and students, due to my lack of coordination and clumsiness. I suppose nowadays I'd be diagnosed with dyspraxia or similar.
I also had horrendous periods and any form of movement was torture.
Unfortunately, on our first day of school we were addressed by the head of PE in the changing rooms and told that periods were not an excuse for missing a lesson, exercise was good for period pain, letters from parents wouldn't be accepted etc.
She was an absolute, utter bitch who made my life hell for the whole five years.

@Momicrone

Aren't you building her up to be the sort of person who just takes sick days off work willy nilly

When someone posts about their workplace having some kind of shitty 'team building' day involving physical activities or something else the poster would find very difficult or embarrassing and which is completely unrelated to the job they've been hired to do, general MN consensus is that avoiding it is okay.

Avoiding your actual job is different, and unrelated, because you wouldn't apply for a job if the role included physical activities you hated.