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?

Dyspraxia is a mobility problem it effects coordination. The trouble is we don’t know about each child but you are assuming the unfairness to the one in the wheelchair as is the person who made complaint. DD’s dyspraxia could be so severe that she can’t really run at all without falling over and the wheelchair boy could have great upper body strength to propel himself and on any other day he would easily win against Dd in a race except today she got lucky and managed to be able to run abit without falling, we just don’t know enough to say if it’s fair or not but you would think if the teacher had but them a race together it was likely to be evenly matched

This. What small minded people.

The complete lack of empathy for the dd from many posters, and lack of understanding or willingness to understand her disability is astonishing.

Indeed. I have dyspraxia.

It involves frequently not being able to do the same things other people do easily, struggling to follow physical demonstrations or instructions, and quite often being injured and humiliated in the process.

I fortunately have it quite mildly and I have great coping mechanisms. But it's a real disability, just as much as being in a wheelchair.

The school was unfair taking the win off your daughter.

My son has cerebral palsy and uses a walking frame and takes part in most sports day races, he's nine and I think it's FAB. He doesn't care that he comes last mostly!! It gives him confidence NOT to be excluded!

One of the races is sack race, they drape the sack over his frame and he kind of runs/jumps along - at the end of the rounds they said who wants to do another go for fun, there were three kids including my son, he won because the other two kids kept falling over.

If what happened to your daughter happened at his school he would be horrified at the unfairness.

On the other side of the coin, it is important that the wheelchair user was willing and happy to race of course, but it sounds like he was.

Give your daughter a big hug from me, tell her she did win otherwise they'd have taken the points from her.

Just to add to my last message, one of the races was 400m, he took about twice as long as the other kids, got a big cheer, was exhausted but still volunteered to have another go for fun.

This willingness and confidence may partly be just his character, but also has been fostered by being allowed to take part in whatever he wants, having his disability acknowledged, making modifications wherever possible, but also never separating him from others through some misguided effort not to upset him, without giving HIM the choice first.

Ignoring the disability issue we have a little girl been given an award, which she won, no doubt excited and happy about it and suddenly they take it off her for some arbitrary reason.

You wouldn't give her a present which made her happy simply to take it off her to give to someone else. Well I'm sure some would but thats just mean.

What they've done shows how little they value her.

@ClaireandTed That's amazing! Your sin sounds fab!! 🤩

son*

Thanks! I'm so proud of him. He has a big ego 🤣 and is never insecure about his disability, and I'm sure that's because we have always treated him the same as everyone else, while acknowledging of course that he finds some things more difficult. I'm hoping this confidence will help him at secondary school when I'm sure there will be bullying etc and more competitiveness, bless him.

By this logic my disabled nine year old son would have been excluded from sports day altogether. Wonderful.

You think your child needs to be able to boast about winning a race against someone in a wheelchair.

You're making the child in the wheelchair out to be incapable. He wouldn't thank you for it.

I used to do this in Reception Sports. The wheelchair was pushed by the TA and the child enjoyed it. Otherwise they wouldn't have been able to take part at all - there weren't enough children in wheelchairs to have an all wheelchair race. We always made sure that children with any kind of disability could take part in everything and had a big emphasis on taking part rather than just the winning.

100% this.

Taking a win away from a child after the race? These people are so backwards.

Lol nah I’m not buying it.

There are so many things wrong here. House points for winning, a 2 child race with an able bodied child against a wheelchair user, the fact that school governors would get involve and vote! What the hell is the school thinking? Also, please teach your child not to boast, it's a sure way to lose friends.

She’s not an able bodied child she is a physically disabled child. She had dyspraxia, this is a physical disability, she may struggle to walk or run without falling depending on how severe it is. She is not an able bodied child just because she doesn’t happen to use a wheel chair

This happens in every sports day in every school every.

The OPs daughter is dyspraxic and ran against NT children, was that fair?

Can you hear the helicopter propellers? Let it go and find a hobby.

I don't understand why the school didn't just tell the parent that complained that they are sorry if the race appeared unfair but that children's SEN's aren't always visible - and left it at that. Sports day is a fucking minefield, I'm so glad mine (also with dyspraxia) doesn't have to endure it any more.

Another poster brought up Oscar Pistorius.

@hangrylady oh look, yet another person who is completely ignorant towards people with disabilities. It's 2022 and peiple still don't understand that you don't need to be in a wheelchair to be disabled. Maybe look into sone disability awareness training

@BewareTheBeardedDragon it's actually quite worrying how ignorant peiple still are, isn't it? I thought we'd moved on from all this rubbish.