To be absolutely gutted the school have received a complaint about this race?

[WinTakenAway]

Sports day last week.

It was the first one since Covid, and was so well run.

Every child had to do everything but they were all awarded a house point for taking part, 2 points for a 1st place only.

My DD came last in all but one race. The race she won was her against 1 other child in her class whose in a wheelchair.

This is the race they’ve received a complaint about.

According to the parent complaining it was unfair!

It wasn’t the parent of the child in the wheelchair who complained as the parent was heard praising the HT for including him in everything.

My DDs had the win taken off her, as the complaint was upheld by the governors. Even though the boy himself wasn’t bothered (he’d won 2 races himself).

DD needed that win, she hates school, is dyslexic and dyspraxic so struggles with even the basics. She needed that win to go into school with confidence and have something to boast about (trust me she’s the type of child that needs to be able to talk about her achievements as she’s always complaining and comparing herself).

It’s a mixed class of Y1 and 2s, so the other child was at most 7. And neither of the DC involved cared, as I said the boy had already won 2 races, my DD just needed a little boost.

Why can’t people just leave alone and let the teachers make a decision that’s best for the class?

I was sort of thinking this but didnt like to say, Im no where near as fast as someone in a wheelchair could be. (I mean as an adult obviously I dont engage in races between me and someone in a wheelchair, I cant say the opportunity comes up too often)

Sports day was a week ago and in that time a parent made a formal complaint and the headteacher had time to get together a panel of governors to adjudicate it?

I think the London marathon wheelchair times are faster than the runners.

People on here talking about it being unfair please read the op. The dd is disabled, she is not in a wheelchair but is disabled non the less. Dyspraxia can be absolutely limiting. The boy in the wheelchair could have been much faster as a pp has described.

However, the school sound crazy.

Probably someone's bright idea to put the two disabled kids together to be inclusive. Its actually pretty offensive.

Anyway they should not have even told your dd about the win being taken away . As i say the school sound absolutely mental. Id complain.

OP, are you really saying that a child in a wheelchair, pushed by his mum, was faster than a group of 7 year old able-bodied boys?

The wheelchair racing times eg on the track or in the marathon, are faster than people running.

Terrible lesson to teach a child - wins a race and then an anonymous complaint leads to disqualification. Very difficult for a child to understand that because its based on some power play behind the scenes.

@FOTB

I don’t think everyone is assuming that? Oscar Pretorious was no longer permitted to compete in able bodied races due to unfair advantage (his). If the London marathon combined able bodied and para-athletes in wheelchairs, the wheelchairs users would win it every time. I’m not suggesting schools have separate para events but how about some creativity like, I dunno throwing things into hoops for accuracy, or basketball shoot out type events. Schools have resources (and basic web searches) to come up with fun ideas that are reasonably accessible for all without creating this sort of disaster.

They use racing wheelchairs on tarmac roads thats a pretty different kettle of fish to a 7 year old boy in what was probably a normal wheelchair and perhaps but maybe not on grass. The fact wheelchair racers are faster than able bodied athletes doesnt really apply here.

So two physically compromised children compete against each other but only the one in a wheelchair "counts". I take it no one complained when the DD (and probably others) with Dyspraxia were competing against other kids with no physical issues?

Yet another example of why we need to raise awareness of invisible disabilities. Starting with the school Governers......

Both children in that race are disabled. Stop all falling into the trap of thinking only a wheelchair user has a disability. In this case both children have physical disabilities.

@Hellocatshome @twocatsandtwokids the op dd is disabled.

This! This race should never have been allowed. Don't complain, you are going to look like an absolute cow for making an issue of that. I think this is why people complained - how is this race ok?

Sorry @twocatsandtwokids tagged the wrong person.

@ArmWrestlingWithChasNDave the op dd is disabled too

You are right, I apologise and I also missed the part about the OPs child being dyspraxic. I do however stand by my comment that OP needs to worry less about this annoying house points debacle and more about how to improve her DDs self esteem. Annoying things happen and unfair decisions are made on a not insignificant number of occasions so children need to be taught not to base their self esteem on things like house points or winning races.

The school seemed to set your child up to fail, however well-intentioned they were, although perhaps the school was also in a lose lose situation of either include unfairly or exclude unfairly. The angle I would take is that your dd is the good guy for giving the disabled child the opportunity to have to fight to win.
Just to add, disabled people shouldn't always be discounted in competion. The sport I used to compete in had many disabled participants who could and would compete against the able bodied equally.

But doesn’t the same apply to the kid in the wheelchair in which case why was the win cancelled in the first place? Why are they just singling out one disabled kid

@Morph22010 I dont understand your comment in relation to mine?

I would agree if it werent for the fact that the complaint was specifically about a child with invisible challenges against a child with visible challenges.

The school upheld the complaint which they clearly should not have done, as I said above this is why there needs to be more education about invisible disabilities as the complainant clearly only saw the wheelchair.

The school should have responded that, due to the abilities of both children involved, they were satisfied that race was run fairly and that given that the wheelchair using child had in fact beaten the OP's DD more than once that day, they would not be taking the complaint further.

I say this as the mother of a very obviously disabled child, I would not stand for a child with invisible issues having a win taken off them if they had beaten my son fair and square (who actually beat an awful lot of kids in his Y6 cross country finale simply because he didnt give up and they did).

How is it inclusive or non discriminatory to take a win from one disabled child and give it to another just because one of the disabilities is more obvious than the other?
I would be taking this further if I was the OP and writing the the BoG asking that very question.

This!! I went to my sons sport day last week and it was all about fun- he’s in year one. They are so young and quite un- coordinated. Nobody really cared about the winning or even noticed/cared.

they had lots of fun little sports game (included water/ bean bags) and were in teams so it was group effort. Why are you focusing so much on who won what. I find it strange at this age.

Well I think it does when he clearly beat other kids in other races, and non athletic wheelchairs are still pretty spiffy compared to how they used be when my son was a kid 25 years ago. The OP says that they are an inclusive school so I am sure they will have made sure that the surface didnt give any advantage or disadvantage either way.

@Hellocatshome you posted “Annoying things happen and unfair decisions are made on a not insignificant number of occasions so children need to be taught not to base their self esteem on things like house points or winning races.” Why should this only apply to the dyspraxic child and not the child in the wheel chair? That’s whe whole reason it was cancelled as it was allegedly unfair

The girl came last in every other race and still beat this boy. He is clearly not speeding around like Oscar Pistorius 🙄

@Forumqueen your school sounds lovely but some schools are very competitive and it is very much all about winning. My son was at a school like that before he moved to specialist, it was very much about winning at all costs rather than everyone taking part. When a child is in a school like that and never wins and then the one time they do it’s taken off them as it’s not fair I can understand why they’d be upset

Exactly. You pit one kid against another in a fair way, and it sounds like this was, one kid is going to lose. Thats a fact. They both understood that and the kid with the wheelchair and his mum werent bothered so why did the BoG kneejerk and take the win off the kid who looks "normal" (whatever that is) just to avoid offending someone who assumes that disability = wheelchair?