To think that secondary sports day should be optional?

[Peggy0907]

DS is year 10, his whole school have sports day today at an athletics track nearby. He hasn't been picked for anything, they do tryouts during P.E and he isn't sporty at all so he's fine with that. My issue is that it's compulsory for the whole school to go and watch from 8.30-3pm regardless of if they're doing an event or not. So DS's day will involve sitting in the stands (no roaming allowed), eating and chatting. They can bring a small bag with packed lunch and a reading book so it's not like he can even bring all his revision material.
I'm sure a lot of the kids will love this but DS hates it and is begging me to let him stay home and revise for his mocks that start on Monday.
Aibu to think that either every kid should be involved in some way or that it should be optional to attend if that isn't an option? I understand they're there to "cheer on" their classmates but in reality the kids in the stands aren't even watching what's going on anyway and it just really seems like a big waste of time for them.
Just to say, I think that it's brilliant that the sports department organise this day and for those children who love sports, whether taking part or spectating, it's a wonderful day for them. But for those like my son, it's a day away from learning.

I'm not sure parents of the GCSE class would necessarily see it as a bad thing...

What an opportunity!

They'd be more likely to volunteer if there was a starting pistol

Teacher here. Non sporty one who would have been mortified to have competed against anyone at a sport. Mum always let me stay home on sports day. In wales we have another event, usually in March, called the Eisteddfod, which has a house competitive element in the arts/writing which I was happy to contribute to, I think they should all have that for balance.

Plenty of kids give up on academia pretty early on and understandably so. Being bad at sport or even really uncomfortable in your body is pretty normal for some teenagers, to force them once a year to display this is pretty awful. Just let them get on with what they enjoy.

Haha, indeed. So glad I didn’t use that time to revise for my exams.

I'd let my child have a sick day I think. What a waste of time .

I hated sports at school, despite being very active outside of school. I loved running and swimming and all sorts of adventure sports. But the PE teachers had their pet pupils and everyone else got ignored

Any school that did that would be breaking the law. Which is no doubt why they opt for the total cop-out of making children sit around for hours doing fuck-all sitting next to a sports field.