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 was always last to be picked in school PE. I absolutely hated it. Not the fact I wasn't picked but the fact I had to be part of the team at all. Tried to get out of gymnastics once by 'forgetting' my kit. Teachers solution, force me into a kit for a 9 year old (I was an adult size 14)

I was always picked last as I was rubbish at most team sports and I can still remember the humiliation many many years later
Most PE teachers are just people with narcissistic tendencies who love to bully children and they made us wear short skirts and freeze in the snow whilst they wore fleeces and coats and joggers. This was in the 70s !
There is a special place in hell for PE teachers
All together bullying each other.

I was never bullied at school (I'm 55) and was always picked last as I was useless at PE.

It should be stopped.

Then what would/did? If not fairly minor disappointments?

I was last to be picked. I hated it. I practiced a lot but was quiet so people thought I was not good at sport.

It has made me VERY competitive in the real world. I am very single minded with going for promotions etc. I also don't trust anyone.

I manage a team and I know my qualities are not the desired qualities in a manager. I do enough supporting, teamwork etc so as not to be noticeablly lacking in it. I feel I have to prove myself as I felt so bad being picked last. I don"t think this was the expected outcome the PE teachers had in mind.

You wouldn't dream of doing this in an academic subject- why not let all the clever kids pick each other in English or maths and let the less able ones feel rejected eh? Teach them a bit of resilience? Sounds awful doesn't it? Why is it any difference with sports? All practices like this did were give me a life long hatred of sports. I also believe PE shouldn't be mixed ability - no other subjects are.

Could be worse at dd secondary they let the kids pick who didnt need to score. And ot was dd several times. She was refusing to use it as she thinks the practise would help her improve

I hated this in school and I’m sorry to hear it’s still happening.

I’m not even that bad at sport but PE put me off for years, and it took until I was 40 to join any kind of sports club - it’s a running club and almost everyone there is better than me but they are positive and encouraging, it’s such a shame PE teachers don’t have that kind of attitude.

I was always left out at school. Even as an adult, I dread any sort of group activity and shy away from it due to past trauma 😜 I absolutely loathe having to ask someone to partner up with me.

Hate hate hate this.
It’s the only time I’ve had to go into my children’s primary school to complain. My daughter’s PE teacher would choose her favourites as captains and would then let them pick teams. My daughter was always one of the last. The major issue was that my daughter actually wasn’t that bad at PE, which led her to the conclusion that her classmates just didn’t like her.

Suggest they use a randomiser (free software) team picks are simple and take seconds with no drama. Punishment for complaints about your team mates is: sit the game out.

I used to hate this system OP, I got left until almost last because I was in a massive minority. I paled as well as the top 6/7.

I too thought the stupid bastards had done away with the system.

so much so the teachers and others banging about equality, safety, MH and well well-being of our children/grandchildren

This system must be banned

What a bunch of ignorant clowns they teachers must be

OP, a heads up, I am going to make this news travel to our media.
Just watch my next thread.

I’m a teacher and we do this, with a different team leader each week to give all children a chance to pick. I firmly believe this is the correct decision.

I remember my dad telling us once that at his school (this would have been in the 50s), the captain picking the football team told the PE teacher he’d rather play with ten men than have my dad. I inherited his lack of sporting ability and also had to put up with the hanging around waiting to be picked scenarios, not to mention the eye-rollings and sighs from the lucky team that ended up with me. Luckily my kids never had this at school, and I’m quite shcoked to hear it still seems to be quite common!

I get that the games teachers and sporty kids would often prefer not to be lumbered with the unsporty, but it is what it is. Games lessons have to be for everyone like every other lesson. Why should the onus be on the last-picked to learn resilience, rather than the first-picked to learn some tolerance and empathy?

@wherearemywellingtons I agree with you. If everyone gets their turn to pick teams what's the problem? It's good to be able to choose teammates who you know you play well with.

I would complain heavily to any school that did this. I can’t believe there are teachers on here justifying it! The only fair way is for teachers (who hopefully aren’t bullies) to pick the teams and mix them up each week.
thankfully none of of my children’s schools do this

I was always the last or second-to-last to be picked so absolutely hated this, but my daughter says she likes this system of choosing teams 🤷‍♀️but she's super sporty and wants to take PE GCSEs, so I guess it's a good system only for sporty kids and makes everyone else feel rubbish.

I’m 50, and I remember this. I was never bullied, but hated sport. I just remember silently praying that I wouldn’t be absolutely last. 2nd, 3rd to last - fine. Just not last.

Surely, it’s faster, simpler and kinder for the teacher to count off - 1, 2, 1, 2 ….?

Unless you’re a sadistic psychopath, how is getting two kids to pick teams the easier method from a teacher’s point of view….?

I’m reminder of Ross, ‘sweetie, now I pick you…’

Because the same kids will always be selected last?

It’s only the kids selected first who will change?

Thanks to the pp who mentioned the Tich Miller poem. I’d never read this before.

@wherearemywellingtons and @Wisterical - thoughts?

Meh, I don’t see the big deal. Classes still openly discuss how kids did in spelling tests or maths tests (my youngest does “morning maths” everyday) all the time. It’s no different.

Detested games and P.E in the seventies, always picked last for netball which seemed to be the only sport played. Always the favorites were chosen to pick teams. Took great delight in last years of school to skive off and go awol for the afternoon and not be missed.

Ahh the joys of PE lessons; it does stand for Practical Exclusion doesn't it?

There was certainly no exercise involved other than getting changed into unsuitable clothing (gym knickers and skirts in all weathers) and traipsing over to a court/ field. Standing there waiting for the inevitable shoulder slump when the teacher's pet calculated how many people were left and that she'd be left with Bogroll on her team, then being allocated to be substitute if there were enough players to get away with it or allocated the least desirable position like Wing Defense if playing couldn't be avoided. All the not-so-subtle digs and bitchy comments. "Team" sports were a bully's haven.

Being shit in your first PE lesson in y7 guarenteed that every other PE lesson was a waste of time and you'd still be shit in your final ever lesson because there was no scope to practice and improve. There was also a lack of decent equipment such as fully inflated balls. My elbows weren't sharp enough to get the experience that it does actually help to have a ball that can bounce.

It was ritualised exclusion endorsed by the teachers who were often little better themselves.

Fortunately I did do something active out of school and that was the gateway to being a fit and active adult. Badly managed PE lessons often results in decades or even a lifetime of rejecting sport and activity. I can't think of any positive thing that I learned in year after year of enduring those "lessons".

My mobile phone taught me how to run both by feeling inspired by friends on social media taking up running, and by C25k which was the polar opposite of a PE teacher, gently encouraging and encouraging being slow rather than ridiculing.

There are many ways of organising teams without resorting to ritualised exclusion tactics.

Not really. No one is making kids pick teams every week in maths or art class. Many of the children who don’t ever get picked will be extremely good at something else which is not used to teach a similar lesson. It just ruins the self confidence of kids who aren’t sporty, but are excellent musicians, artists, scientists etc while constantly elevating some who are only good at sports or popular. Deeply unfair and totally unnecessary.

The Tich Miller poem says it all. How impactful.

My son had SEN but was quite good at football so fortunately didn't have to suffer this ritual humiliation in games. He did however have some bad experiences in the classroom though with academic work. Sometimes teachers would ask pupils to get into groups for tasks and none of the groups wanted him. Broke my heart when he told me. How is that inclusive?
The parents on this thread saying it makes you resilient to be picked last clearly don't have children with SEN.