Mixed gender race at sports day

[littlegreydevil]

Hi, long time lurker but first post and I’m aware I am stepping in with a particularly hot topic but here goes…
Our primary school organised its annual sports day this week and for unknown reasons, decided to mix boys and girls for the sprints. Teams are usually mixed genders for the less competitive activities like the sack race, egg and spoon race, etc. but this is the first time they’ve mixed genders for the competitive races. Of course this has resulted in only 2 girls making the podium across all the year groups and both “only” hitting third place.
I’m really bothered by this as I thought sports day was about celebrating sporting achievements and encouraging kids to enjoy sports (I know this can be disputed but that’s a whole other debate) and today, I have watched a ream of very sporty, very talented female runners lose to their male counterparts and I can’t see how that fits in the ethos of sports day.
I am planning to speak to the head to question their motives in making this odd decision.
imo sport is gendered for a reason and it should be about equity rather than equality. You might be able to argue that younger age groups could be mixed as supposedly their physical ability is the same up to age 7 or 8 (need to find the references for this) but from year 2 onwards, it doesn’t work anymore. Girls start going through puberty from as young as 9 so by that point, it should be gendered.
For full transparency, I have 2 children, a boy and a girl, neither of which is talented in athletics (they are very good in other sports) and usually come in at a solid bottom 3rd place so this is not about my kids being slighted.
If you were me, what questions would you ask from the head and, seeing as they have a track record of being quite obstinate, what arguments would you produce?

But they’re not equal. Population split is 50/50ish yet 19 boys made podium vs 2 girls. That doesn’t stack up with ability being equal even at this young age.

It's primary school. Sports day is a bit of fun once a year, not something to make a huge deal out of. Do you check in on the ratio of girls vs boys in each subject and their levels of achievement? Who's "winning" in maths?
Don’t be "that" parent. But it looks like you are already. Are you planning to back off during secondary school? You might find that your kids get to the point that they'll speak out for themselves, not necessarily in a way that you'd like. Back off, you'll do them no favours carrying on like this.

Did you even read the update?

OP is not the only parent that is being ‘that’ parent. I suspect that they are quite ok with having ignored your advice. Some teachers were also ‘those’ teachers too!

If your school is giving acknowledgement of any kind to the top 3 place getters in athletics, from age 6 following the current evidence, they should be rewarding the top 3 in each sex. There is a noted physical advantage that boys have even from that age.

Can you please show where there is any mental processing advantage that boys have over girls for maths? Or if there is no girls in the top achievers in Maths in the school, is there an issue external to the children’s capability?

You sound like you are a poor advocate for girls with this post. Far too concerned with how you are being perceived than how your any child of yours might be faring at school. It is quite acceptable for parents to be proactive and discuss things that might not be working with current policies with teachers. Keeping silent on the other hand, in case you are ‘that’ parent is modeling to children that their well being isn’t as important as how you are perceived by the school community.

I wasn't posting to dive into the melodrama.just clearly pointing out that its primary school, is this the hill anyone wants to die on?
Poor advocate for girls my arse, I didnt give my personal opinion either way. Yeah, I’m so concerned with how I might be perceived if you took one look at me on the daily school run you'd shut your fucking mouth, ffs we're not even allowed to attend sports day so if I fancied a lap around the field (fuck that, I'd rather have a nice sit down) it's a no go anyway.
I spent a fucking fortune on tutoring so my daughter was prepared for and passed the 11+. Grammar school ready for September because her teachers rightly recognised her skill levels. But oh yeah, we're talking about fucking sports day and who's perceived as what. School community I've not had another parent speak to me in years during the school run. Not there to make friends.
All in all, way to blow my post completely out of all context and sound like a complete nutter. You alright there love?

I’m actually perfectly happy to be that parent. If you were wondering why I waited 3 days to speak to the head, it’s because I checked in with my children and their friends to hear how they felt. I didn’t want to be that parent if the kids weren’t bothered. As it happens, they were upset and told me how unfair they’d found it. To compound things, they weren’t told in advance that the races would be mixed, they found out on the spot. So they went in full of hope and determination and came out crushed. Our headteacher has happily steam rolled over the kids’ opinions in the past so yes, I am that parent because I am not afraid in the way the kids are. And before anyone comes at me thinking I am a troublemaker, I come from a teaching family and have a lot of respect and admiration for teachers. On a day to day basis, I have an excellent relationship with my kid’s’ teachers. But when I spot injustice, I have no speak up. I think I mentioned early on that this is not even about my kids, it just didn’t feel fair. And many other parents agreed.

Crikey….

You have plenty of support here OP.

Absolutely nothing wrong with being seen as ‘that’ parent in any case. Often people who are being ‘that’ parent have well informed perspectives.

I think we have seen quite a few poster’s who have been overly dismissive of what sports days mean to kids. Especially, at primary school. It is almost as if when a love of sports and athletics is likely to be formed, adults are dismissing it.

And that ‘ ‘even just a bit of fun’ shouldn’t be an actual learning experience and if rewards given, then fairness is valued. As you say, children really do pick up things such as this inequity. Of course they do.

But the attitude of ‘it is just sports’ and ‘it is just a bit of fun’ and ‘it is just primary school’ misses rather a lot of what can be easily done with very minor tweaks. It certainly comes across as dismissive.

I think you might find OP, that they will discuss it amongst themselves at school. Maybe when next year starts the students can talk to the head teacher themselves even if enough of them feel the same way.

Good luck.

I'm just very surprised because at no primary school sports days I've attended has there ever been any tendency of one sex to win over another. That's including my own in the 80s, siblings' schools (I was parent/carer for much younger half siblings) in the 90s-2000s and DCs' school now (attended five years in a row).

Wow.... Way to blow a discussion way out of context. Who shat in your wheeties this morning. Take a lie down!

I've not had another parent speak to me in years during the school run.

I wonder why....

My primary school separated boys’ and girls’ competitive events from about the age of 7 in the 1950s. Sports Day was then a mixture of team, fun and competitive events then, and it was similar for my children in the 1980s, and my grandchildren in the last decade. It’s certainly not always been mixed sex events at primary school.
Of course some tall, strong and athletic 9 yo girls can beat many less tall, strong and athletic 9 yo boys. But good male athletes at any age will always have the edge, as has been well explained on here.

We do mixed sports teams and races at our school, at 12 children per intake impossible to do anything else I think. Our fastest runner in year 6 is one of the girls.
My son plays on the netball team but they can only have one boy in an attacking or defending position on the court at a time. I think the sports are managed well.

I don't think the evidence given on here has shown much, as the studies linked to were small (the Australian one had very few of children under 9) and didn't show psychosocial factors, which have been shown in huge amounts of research over decades to have a huge influence.

We're a tiny rural school with a PAN of 10 and do single sex races for all classes with 3 or more of each sex.

It's not all sports btw.

Girls are faster at swimming in the younger age groups.

Swimming.org has collated over 22 million times. You can search and see in younger age groups girls are much faster- for any year, any stroke, any distance.

In the past 12 months 50 free, of the top 20 swimmers born in 2012 there are 16 girls, 4 boys.

My point? Boys don't shine over girls in every sport at every age- so don't assume they do.

If there are big differences (like swimming (girls faster) and running (boys faster) ) then single sex races are best.

Mums of boys will definitively agree with you, it gives their son a chance to win something if you don't mix them with girls in primary school 😂

Push it to ban mix swimming galas as well, I just come back from one and all the podium were feminine. I didn't realise it was already documented that girls do better at swimming, but it has always been my experience.

You would definitively be "that parent" in my schools, because it's always amusing when parents take sports day and their little darlings being the winners so seriously.

didn't show psychosocial factors, which have been shown in huge amounts of research over decades to have a huge influence

In pre- and borderline pubescent children? I’d like to see it, out of interest.

You clearly don't get it. It's not about 'winning', it's about fairness and not discouraging girls from participating. Just because you're obsessed with winning, you wrongly assume everyone else is, too.

I think you're getting confused.

What you've described is that for an individual woman her lower body strength tends to be greater than her upper body strength and that for an individual man it's the other way round. (I don't know if this is true or not)

NOT that women in general have greater lower body strength than men in general. I know that's not true and I don't know how anyone could believe it is if they think about it for more than one minute!

I could be wrong on this and have no scientific data but I imagine by the age of 10 there is also a big difference not just in the physical side but also opinions about running and winning, we teach boys from a young age to be more competitive in sports. I don't know if they have done any studies on this though.

OP follow up in writing with the governors and via the school’s formal complaints process, saying that the school has breached the Equality Act by committing unlawful discrimination against its female
pupils, and that the headteacher has refused to confirm that this unlawful discrimination will not be repeated again in future.

Details as to how this was unlawful discrimination are here if you scroll down.

https://fairplayforwomen.com/sport_policy/

Be clear that you require a formal written response from the school, and that if the school refuses to confirm in writing that single sex sports competitions will return, you will be writing to Ofsted asking for an inspection on the grounds that the legal rights and mental health of the school’s female students are being deliberately infringed by the school.

My DC always had mixed gender races at primary school.