Making kids choose 'teams' for PE - assumed this was an old fashioned thing?

[Devicey]

But told today that it happens every week at DCs primary.

Honestly thought this was something I have just seen on films and assumed wasn't done anymore?

Always similar kids left to the last couple that no one wants on their team.

AIBU or are there far better ways to divide up a class of kids for PE?

I assume the teachers ask a different person to pick each week and it highlights any issues between the children?

It actually probably gives the teachers insight into the dynamic of the class and the "pecking" order. It may also provide evidence of low level bullying?

Just asked here and our school mixes the above with assigning a number to them randomly.

Agree that it can be a good way to look at who is chosen and whether there is low level bullying going on. It should be different people picking each week.

I've taught PE for 12 years and have never done this. Ever. I think it's old fashioned and mean

I remember learning the poem Titch Miller in school and it had such a profound effect that in 22 years teaching I have never let the children choose their own teams.
Also the punishment for a negative reaction to a team mate being added is you miss the game.

DS's school does this (secondary). The same people always get to choose and the same people are left out. It's a terrible system. Teams for any sport are just chosen by who can play football well and/or who is popular (which is, I'm told, often the same thing).

I just asked my DD what happens at her school and she says either they stand in a row and the teacher goes down the line saying 1, 2, 1, 2 or then two team leaders are picked, stand with their backs to the rest of the class and pick by saying things like "3rd from the right".

I know a school which did this, although it was a secondary, it always ended up with the choosers mata on their team, it was eventually scrapped when parents pointed out the problems to the school, i.e. children really good at a sport left out because they weren't mates. The school decided that the teachers were best placed to pick teams.

I wasn’t low level bullied at secondary school and I wasn’t low in the pecking order but I was really really shit at PE and was humiliated by being picked last every single time this was done. If teachers really are doing it for those reasons they’re not good reasons!

"It actually probably gives the teachers insight into the dynamic of the class and the "pecking" order. It may also provide evidence of low level bullying?"

In my primary it was the PE teacher doing the bullying, and it wasn't all that low level either. Admittedly I was pretty useless at team games, but my God she made sure I stayed that way (apart from one glorious moment, one in 6 years of hockey, when I saved a goal). Every time I go on a solo hike now and peacefully gaze at the countryside around me, I think back to that horrible woman.

Glad to hear others do it very differently!

In Dc's primary they had their names on lollipop sticks which were used in some lessons to call on someone to give an answer and they used these to divide the teams up too, so totally random. Far nicer than children being not just picked last but also the last few. Horrid.

Never mind providing evidence for low level bullying, this IS bullying.

I thought that this type of thing went out years ago. We used to have it a bit when I was at school and I was generally easily in the first half being picked but I still hated it. I also used to be the “picker” quite a lot (sporty and sensible presumably) and I really used to hate that. Found it really stressful. Am feeling stressed just thinking about it now.

Urgh. As the one who was always last. It's a horrible thing to do. I thought it had been stopped.

I hated this at first school! I have a physical disability and was last chosen. However I completely understood the reasoning of the person choosing the teams. By the end I was upset at the teacher letting it happen.

Surely teachers can tell pecking order some other way. It happened in playground sport as well though I didn’t play so they or the supervisor could discuss. In PE its worse - the school condone it.

Yes it's upsetting ( I was always 4th from last)

But it was also fair in that better children got chosen first and teaches you that skill and capabilities matter in the real world - so it's not a shock when you get turned down for promotion

In my day it was always the PE teachers favourites (ie the netball team) who chose and they always chose their mates (ie the rest of the netball team) and us lot that couldn't catch were always picked last. Oh such happy memories. God how I hated PE.

It highlights issues between the children? Well I SO enjoyed being the person no one wanted to pick so the teacher could see there were problems. It’s not the way to do it and it’s bloody horrible to be standing there knowing what is going to happen and knowing you’ll be made to feel like shit and no one wants you on their team. There’s nothing good about this method and I was bullied all through school teachers turned a blind eye it was v obvious!!!

I hated it, as neither sporty nor popular I was always one of the ones picked last.

It doesn't do anything but put less sporty kids off playing sport.

Does the school do jousting, shove ha'penny and for the boys, play football according to the Sheffield rules?

OP, contact the school about this.

This used to happen when I was at primary school im 50
It doesn't matter that different kids get to choose every weeks if your the kid that is always picked last it can be Soul destroying
I had hoped this lazy and unfair way of picking teams had died a death a long time ago.

You can look at it another way which my dd said, and I totally saw where she was coming from.
She didn't really have a strong group of friends, and was normally towards the end/at the end of being picked too. She was not very sporty either.

She said she preferred it when it was picked because then she didn't end up with a group that was really competitive and annoyed that she wasn't as good as them, and she felt/they felt she was letting the team down.

That does require the teacher knowing the group well enough to pick leaders, but she much preferred that, even knowing she'd be picked last.

Oh god do they still do this? I’m 58 now and still remember the utter mortification of being the one left until the last 2 or 3. Having the team leader going like “oh I’ll have to pick you”, Hideous.

To be fair I was crap at sports.

Only exception was rounders because for some reason unknown to me I could whack a rounders ball halfway across the school. Always got picked first for rounders.

They need to stop doing it this way. It's so humiliating for kids always picked last (ie: me. And no I wasn't academic, popular or arty to make up for it).

It’s lazy teaching. They can’t be bothered to sort the groupings.

Apart from hockey I was nearly always last!

Personally I've never been scarred from knowing I was shit at some team sports 🤣 In fact I've probably benefited from being allowed to learn resilience from knowing what my strengths were and where they certainly weren't!

I do t have a issue with picking teams but you need to make sure team captains always change. My favourite way one of our PE teachers did it is by having 4 captains and then combining each of the 4 teams into 2 teams.

I think for those who aren't academically top but are great at sport it's their chance to shine.

But I can see the argument for not doing it this way.