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 would agree if this was voluntary school team rather than PE. I decide whether to try for a promotion thinking I have the skills. Fair enough if I don’t get it.

I have no choice in PE. In my particular case there would be reasonable adjustments if I was going for a job. I’m nowhere near good enough but it would have been para sport. The kids picking aren’t picking me last to be mean but didn’t know as well as cerebral palsy I can’t see properly hence rubbish at sport. I shouldn’t need to declare that for PE to the other children.

I failed to quote midgetastic in my last post and too late now to edit

I thought it died out when I was at school, we saw a shift from picking to 1-2, 1-2, or pulling coloured bean bags out of a sack by the time I left secondary in the early 90s.

I'm a primary teacher - woukd never do this as it makes kids feel awful. Apparently they do it at my kids secondary. So pointless - I can organise them into teams in half the time it takes to "pick".

I agree. Its awful and sad for some. Id NEVER encourage if i was a teacher

The PE teacher chooses the captains- different ones each time. The captains choose 2/3 each the. The PE teacher allocates the rest to balance the groups.
i can’t see the problem but of course people just like to bash teachers whatever they do.

It’s one of the reasons I hated PE at school and still have a pointed aversion to any kind of team sport.

I’m a teacher now, not of PE, but when I’m having learners work in groups, I decide the groupings based on having a mix of skills and personalities. I wouldn’t let learners pick because it leads to people choosing their pals and leaving others out.

Life doesn't often work that way though some kids are not academic or sporty

This is so old fashioned. Never had this at school in the 90s-00s and thought it had gone out with the ark. Like a pp I also read "Tich Miller" and it made a lasting impression.

I will never forget always being last to be picked by both the sporty darlings and the beyond bitchy PE teachers. I sincerely hope they're all rotting in some dank corner of hell for the rest of their vile existence.

It's a stupid bloody way to teach team working for those who aren't sporty and unfortunately the sporty types in charge of the world think it's only way to teach working in a team.

Luckily I was very academic in some subjects and very sharp tongued, but it has meant as an adult I have always refused to join in any stupid team physical games and it took me a long time to find forms of exercise that work for me. One day the whole lot of them will all find their way into a cosy crime novel and meet the sticky ends they more than deserve.

And in answer to your question, yes it still goes on and yes it's a stupid bloody way to choose teams.

Whose bashing teachers ??
Its a very unfair way of picking teams and there are better ways of picking them.

God, this is still so triggering, even at the ripe old age of 66. I was tall, gawky and uncoordinated, and always in the last two or three to be picked. The feeling of the regular ritual humiliation will stay with me always, and put me off sport for a long, long time.

But they shine by being good in the actual game, scoring goals etc, not by being picked first!
In a real life when you apply for a job sometimes you don’t get it, you’re not ritually lined up with all the other candidates in order of how good you are.

Just asked a friend who is a teacher. She says it really depends on the class, we don't have separate PE teacher. Her class is 17 children all fiercely protective of each other so she lets them pick occasionally as they ask to and because she can see them ensure its different people chosen each time.

So it is an example to her that the school ethos of all together is being lived. They also do by random numbers, colours they are wearing etc. I am reading from others that the issues that can arise depending on the cohort.

I found these ways of making teams in PE more fun than just being split into teams by the teacher. It was fun to choose!

(I wasn't skilled at PE games and didn't enjoy PE - the only sport I enjoyed was swimming, so not in school - and I was pretty much a loner, so it wasn't that I was winning in popularity either.)

Incredibly poor teaching practice, especially at primary school where presumably the aim of PE is to get everyone enjoying sport and trying to up their skill level - this isn't a premier league academy! Really sad to see it's still deemed acceptable.

Seems we talk a lot about resilience but don’t want any of the kids to actually develop it.

Are you saying that the kids picked last, over and over, just need to learn resilience?

I remember this practice from over 40 years ago. Horrible!

I'm 54 and I still remember "Sue" the PE teacher who let her sporty favourites call her by her first name!

I was average at sports, but I was a victim of bullying so got picked last for that reason. It didn't teach me resilience. The bullying as a whole pushed me to the brink of suicide and the PE picking teams formed a part of it. I never played sport again. It put me off for life.

So yeah I don't think it should ever be used as a method for picking teams.

Why in PE though? Why are the kids not choosing teams for Maths? I can't envisage a situation where kids would be allowed to pick a team for Maths and make the less Mathsy kids feel like shit.
The subject is physical education, ie knowing about your body, it isn't called Games anymore with the focus on competitiveness and winning. Having said that my kids came home upset a few times because someone had cheated in Capture the Flag. They never gave a shit if someone copied their written work.

Because maths isn’t a team sport?

Exactly this
I was unpopular to say the least at school and always never even picked for teams in PE. I was always the last one left so joined whichever team needed an extra person. Every single time

it made me think I hated sports and exercise . I finally find and enjoy fitness in my 30s by going to a inclusive gym where I now have lots of friends and I am now super fit

I realise how much i triggered by my school experience when one time in circuits I was picked last when peoples had to choose a partner. At nearly 40 years old it actually did make me cry cos of the memories it bring back

Yes, I am.

I was always picked last, couldn’t care less. I’m not sporty.

Trust me Nap being picked last and eye rolled at didn't make me at all resilient. The complete opposite.

No the teacher or whoever is taking a class should pick the team. Xx