To think the school have got this very wrong?

[anerki101]

Had an email from my child's school this week regarding the World Cup. The council have decided that they want to celebrate the World Cup so will be allowing the first game to be shown in school for every one to watch. They added that because of the human rights concerns with the host nation they would ask the kids to wear their football kits or team colours and bring in a donation for amnesty International.

AIBU to think this is wrong? If they are concerned about the human rights issues then surely boycotting the World Cup and NOT showing the game is the the best thing to do? Very happy to donate to amnesty but I still think allowing the game to be shown is a mistake.

I say this as a football fan who looks forward and watches the world Cup but won't be this time.

Sorry it wasn't team colours as in premier league - it was England kit or colours representing the flag of another competing nation

Sorry no, it says "come in wearing a football kit or colours of a nation playing in the tournament" so I guess team colours are also fine.

Is this a state school OP? Because if it is, pushing political views on children in this way is illegal.

Have they boycotted past World Cups or Olympics? If not, why not?

The whole boycotting hysteria is rapidly becoming rancid, frankly. Anyone who believes that this is related to human rights is deluded

It's very likely the forced donation to AI is illegal too

As a Canadian, I find it absolutely insane to show sports games during school time.

We have been hammered for cash for various things since Septemeber. We've had an own clothes day to raise money, today another one for children in need, one next week to raise for Amnesty. That's on top of all the other stuff we are expected to buy, school Christmas cards, mugs, school photos, snap bands and poppies, school discos, Christmas jumper day, after school clubs. It's relentless.

Britain is full of Qatari money. How do you separate it from the regime?

It seems as if someone is trying to stifle any source of UK funding that doesn't come with cultural strings attached.

I'd be cross at the waste of educational time watching a football match. None of my children had any interest in football and would not have football colours to wear.

This. I am sick of football being more important than every other sport.

We need to give darts more coverage in schools I think.

I think it's ok to watch it. I mean the king took millions of Qatari money in a bag so ...

Christ, I hope we expect schools to set the bar higher than 'no worse than Charles'.

Translated: The school staff want to watch the match at work. I'd keep my kids at home and tell the school it was my personal protest against Qatar human rights

FFS. Have a think. Football, whether you like it or not, is part of our national psyche. So if an England game is played during school time, many families will keep their children at home. This will play havoc with school attendance statistics. So the simple answer is to play the game in school, kids attend because it's better to watch the game with friends than parents. Schools are happy as attendance is no worse than normal.

Whilst I don’t agree with watching football in school time I’m fed up of all this boycotting crap. It’s called the World Cup. It’s the first time an Arab country has held it. If only countries with western values can participate then it isn’t a World Cup.

This. And sorry but I fail to see how it's the school's business to watch in the first place.

Football transcends so many forums, integrates itself in to so many aspects of life that you can’t expect school not to acknowledge it’s existence. Equally, Qatar is still in its developmental infancy. It would mean shining an equally bright light on activities going on in the early 1920/30s era in Britain if you wanted to directly compare in terms of industrialisation. You simply can’t, they’re trying and the constant barrage of derogation of Qatar is tedious. Those in glass houses etc.

Let the dc enjoy the World Cup and leave the, many, reasons to debate the unsuitability of the venue to the adults.

Perhaps you can make a stand and say no to more school requests for money.

If an England game is played during school time, many families will keep their children at home. This will play havoc with school attendance statistics. So the simple answer is to play the game in school ...

The poverty of expectations here is heartbreaking, but I guess we should be grateful that at least nobody's said it would "damage the kids' mental health if they missed it"

Though it's probably only a matter of time ...

Every four years the World Cup has Group games which are played live during school time. I've never heard of school showing England group games before - why is this WC special?

what do you expect to happen? if a school believes that their children won't attend in sufficient numbers as to cause problems with attendance statistics, what do you think they should do? because what matters to the school is Ofsted, Progress 8, exam results. It's a pragmatic response to a situation they know they'll be hauled over the coals for at the next inspection. They get the majority of lessons done as normal during the day. It's better than kids attending sporadically for the duration of the World Cup.

@Shiningsilverargent

And what do you think happened in other World Cups before this when England matches were played in the daytime?

A clue: Schools do not normally stop to watch them.

C'mon Wales

A clue: Schools do not normally stop to watch them

Clue: usually the matches are in the evenings. When they have been during the day, in my experience, schools did the same thing but I'm thinking back to the early 2000s when this last happened. I think. Schools are under unprecedented levels of expectation. This reaction really isn't surprising.

If worried about the ethics, did you also boycott the World Cup when it took place in Russia? Or indeed anywhere in the world, as no country is free of dubious ethics and corruption? Talking of which, FIFA is grotesquely corrupt, so nobody should be watching any football matches organised by FIFA, anyway…. And the Premier League isn’t much better…. Oh dear - it seems ethics and commercial football are not particularly compatible.

Clue: usually the matches are in the evenings

@Shiningsilverargent They are not. There is always a early afternoon, late afternoon and evening match in group games as there are just too many to all be played in the evenings.

Yes, indeed.

What do you expect to happen?

The same as happened (at least round here) all the other times when games were played during school hours ... consider screening it in schools/work/whatever if we reach the final but otherwise carry on as normal, knowing that those who believe football to be the be-all and end-all are so few as to make little appreciable difference

Interesting, though, that you dropped in "kids attending sporadically for the duration of the World Cup" (my italics) - a bit of a giveaway there as to what some, incredibly, would like to see