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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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

760 replies

HelloKittyGirl · 28/01/2022 19:55

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

OP posts:
CrankyFrankie · 29/01/2022 22:31

Pathetic attitude to be passing on.

HelloKittyGirl · 29/01/2022 22:31

Can’t believe the number of responses here. Thanks to those who have suggested reasons to give.

OP posts:
QuornSausagesAreTheDevilsPenis · 29/01/2022 23:06

At dc's school even if they're not doing the lesson they still have to get changed and go and sit on the touchline/court/whatever so getting them signed off is kinda pointless. Unless they've got like a broken leg or something.

NewbieSM · 29/01/2022 23:14

Op I think you are missing the point, your opinion on whether you think P.E is worthwhile is irrelevant. It is a mandatory part of the school curriculum that you agreed to when you registered your daughter. By making up a lie to get her out of participating what message are you sending? If you don't like something you can just make up an excuse to get out of it? That's not how real life works, imagine her in 20 years saying I don't fancy completing this project at work I'll get my mum to to write a note and get me out of it, ridiculous.

RockingMyFiftiesNot · 29/01/2022 23:15

@WTF475878237NC

am astonished there are people in my professional who have this blinkered view.

^ yes, really shocked to read the teachers who think agree with the OP.

But not all teachers are great teachers, let alone great parents.
AnnaSW1 · 29/01/2022 23:20

Osgood-Schlatters would be a good shout.

Intheopinionofourexpert · 29/01/2022 23:50

[quote usinon]**@Intheopinionofourexpert* It really isn't just practise. I played tennis at school for years. I was no better in the 6th form than I was in the first. Some people just aren't able to coordinate their bodies in the way others can. Unless you are one of those people, it simply isn't possible to understand* according to neuroscience it is in fact just practice, creating the neural pathways, assuming NT - and ND often as it is this sort of thinking re creating new neural pathways which is used to help ND people nowadays.

If you had taken a bucket of 50 balls and practised hitting all the balls over the net, then all the balls serving, getting someone to chuck them at you to give practice reurning, a couple of times a week, with determination, and watched youtube videos on technique, I can pretty much guarantee you'd have become a competent player!![/quote]
Grin Ah, if only it was that simple. All of us on this thread who found PE humiliating would have been competent at sport if only we'd hit 50 balls out of a bucket, practised, and watched some YouTube videos.

We had more than a dozen tennis court at my school, we were taught by actual teachers, not by watching a screen, from the first form until the 6th form. Some of us just can't make our hands work in coordination with our eyes, however hard we try. But yeah, we should all be a bit more determined.... because tennis is of course an essential life skill.

Research shows that teenage girls drop out of sport at a huge rate (there's plenty of research on this). The issue won't be resolved by practising more, it's about how sport makes girls feel, how it is taught and the lack of insight displayed by people who just don't understand that changes need to happen.

LG123 · 30/01/2022 01:55

I'm with you op. PE and sports day are the very reason I can't stand physical exercise.

swampygirl · 30/01/2022 03:07

It's wrong to allow your child to lie.
You haven't said what the reason is your DD wants to skip PE.
We all have to do things we'd rather not - that's life!
YABU. Shame on you!

blubberball · 30/01/2022 03:13

You'll need a wound, some kind of convincing wound...

*shoots Captain Darling in the foot

Yes, that looks pretty convincing!

yzed · 30/01/2022 03:24

What I find most interesting about this thread, is that 661 posts so far, many of which berate OP for daring to think her child might be allowed to avoid something unpleasant, almost no one suggests that schools/pe teachers might up their game and make their lessons enjoyable.

Not, I might add, that children should be encouraged to favour enjoyable lessons (heavens no!) but perhaps that physical exercise might be a potentially enjoyable activity, if only approached in a less unpleasant manner.

NewbieDivergent · 30/01/2022 03:29

Also she'll have at least one lesson a fortnight up until the end of year 11,she cant miss them all.I was the short,overweight,shy,glass wearing two left feet child who never got picked for teams etc,but my mother would still never let me miss p.e.

sashh · 30/01/2022 03:58

@doorornottodoor

What about the non academic kids? They have to struggle through lessons every day but don’t have a choice! Just get on with it. The weather is a pathetic excuse. Put more clothes on. You’re raising a real snowflake there. In a decent school non sporty kids should have options that aren’t humiliating for them.
But the kids that are struggling in maths and English are put in classes with other children of the same level, we don't put them in the top set and criticise them for not keeping up.

I don't know a school without a school uniform so 'put more clothes on' isn't an option.

Grasping · 30/01/2022 05:17

I would rather mine do PE than Maths tbh Grin

JohnMcCainsDeathStare · 30/01/2022 06:42

yzed Am I a joke to you?!?

damnthisvirusandmarriage · 30/01/2022 06:56

I am sporty. And was one of top in school.

BUT. I hated PE initially. This was because I was embarrassed by my changing body. And didn’t want anyone to see it and mock me.

You should know at this time I was also a very good swimmer. And had no issues getting changed there twice every day.

The girls were just horrid in school. Nasty. Didn’t have the boobs coming, pubes. Periods. Plus periods were hard to manage at that age anyway. Never mind having to to PE with a manky ST.

You should also know the teacher got done and sacked and trialled for being very inappropriate a number of years after I left high school. She was obsessed with us girls getting changed. It was weird.

Those were the days eh 🙄

I’d be getting to the root cause of why your child doesn’t want to do this lesson.

doorornottodoor · 30/01/2022 07:14

I was really crap at PE, didn’t enjoy competitive sport (still don’t ). Our teachers were pretty nice luckily and never humiliated us. As we got older we also did stuff like aerobics (this was the 90s!) I was at an all girls’ school.

I feel for people who have had such awful experiences. Sad All I can say as a teacher is that the new generation of PE teachers are very different. At the school I teach at they do HIIT classes as well as all the usual competitive stuff. There is a lot of emphasis on being kind etc… throughout the school too. Inclusive.
I say this to reassure people that it’s not the same as it was.

PUGMEISTER21 · 30/01/2022 08:44

If there is no genuine reason then well done for sending the message to you child that it is OK to fake illness and lie about stuff. That should set her up nicely for phoning in sick when she starts working. :-(

TracyMosby · 30/01/2022 08:50

teachers might up their game and make their lessons enjoyable
Hmm
You understand the purpose of education, right?

LightBulbous · 30/01/2022 08:53

@HelloKittyGirl honestly. Have a think about what you’re teaching your child long term. I work in a secondary school and the biggest fear I have for the children is the lack of resilience taught by parents. Any time a child doesn’t want to do something it’s pandered to. Teach her strength. Teach her sometimes there are tougher times in life where you have to graft and hate it. Teach her lying isn’t great. Teach her not everything worth doing will be fun at the time.

Resilience to overcome and tackle challenges is what children need and you getting her out of PE for a term due to weather is not teaching her that.

TopsieGreenwood · 30/01/2022 08:57

Surely if this school allows kids to do homework in the library instead of PE they'll all end up getting notes. That way they get more free time

Oblomov22 · 30/01/2022 08:59

Sorry, I've skim read thread, but all of OP posts and I still can't work out what the actual reason is?

Grasping · 30/01/2022 09:00

@Oblomov22

Sorry, I've skim read thread, but all of OP posts and I still can't work out what the actual reason is?
She just doesn’t like it 🤷‍♀️
ThinWomansBrain · 30/01/2022 09:01

why not opt for home schooling if your precious princess only wants to do what she likes?

Charlotteskye · 30/01/2022 09:13

That depends on the school and their PE teachers. Your school didn't teach you anything sports related. What a shame.

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