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?

@takemeawayagain I have a life

I think it seems old fashioned too. I never did it as a teacher. But I don't think it's about bullying and I don't think that switching who picks teams will help.

I was bullied at school but aside from that I was absolutely terrible at all sports. I could barely throw or catch and would run in the opposite direction of the ball. I had absolutely no coordination. I was always picked last because most people at least somewhat want to win the game they're playing which made picking me an absolutely terrible idea. The only time I would be picked would be if my 1-2 friends were picking and even then they definitely only picked me because they had to. All of the other 24 students would definitely not pick me because why would they pick someone terrible?

I know it's nothing to do with me being bullied because one day we tried one of the "boys" sports that we never did and I showed a tiny flicker of talent at it (although short-lived) and then when it came to picking teams I was picked.

While I get while I wasn't picked and think it was completely separate to bullying, it was really humiliating. It would have been much kinder for the teachers just to do some kind of random picking.

If you're going to do this, you should make sure the captains always change. But to be honest, I think it should be done at random - maybe using coloured balls and pulling one out each. I was always the one left until last, and it sucked. It didn't build my character in the slightest.

I’m all for celebrating the best and developing leadership skills. So maybe do this in situations where you can pick 2 top teams and then the rest of the class be split at random. Just don’t put any child in a position where they are having to choose, or repeatedly being chosen, between the second worst and the worst.

Not done at kid's school thankfully

What happens in PE lessons and what happens in sports clubs should not be the same.

PE lessons should be about healthy exercise and teamwork, not winning and competition.

Team games with players picked at random are the correct way to go in PE lessons. Learning to treat people with respect is more important than winning.

I’m a teacher . I never , ever do this . I hate it . I was always the last to be picked in PE and it was a horrible feeling . When I was training , I was in a school where the teacher did this and I saw a whole team make a big show of being so disappointed when they had to have the last child left on their team and it was bloody heartbreaking !

I will decide how many teams we need and if , for eg , it’s 4 then children get numbered 1/2/3/4 and I do it in the order they’re stood in . I would never put a child through that and I think it’s disgusting that it’s still done

Of any group of teachers faced with a games class, most will not have been picked last in their own school days, so will not have thought about it, and I don't recall it being taught in college. No college now, and PE advisors are from the pickers group, so not aware.
I did not use picking, having been the tail end myself. Began with running about to watm up. Blew the whistle, told them to make groups of two, repeat for three, and four. (Depending on numbers that day). Pick one group to line up as the leaders. Make the others ;ine up behind them. Result - friendship groups split across the teams.. Occasionally one team would be worse than all they others. Swap them round to make it fairer. There was quite a bir of cooperation. I tended not to choose the alphas as the leaders.
But I couldn't influence other staff. I xouldn;t even convince them not to line up boys and girls at the end of break and compete on behaviour. (Used desk numbers.) Things have always been done as they have always been done......

If they are training for a game like basketball or soccer they should not be playing a game. They should be practicing exercises in ball handling or other techniques.

I was always picked last. I was bullied at school generally. Not sporty at all. Being better at academic subjects didn't stop that feeling of humiliation once a week when teams were needed. Especially the day when I was the last one and should have gone to team A. The team captain said to team B "well we don't want her on our team you take her" to which B responded "no way we don't want her either! She's yours!"
All this said in front of the teacher who did nothing other than say to team A "well to make up numbers she needs to be on your team so it's tough luck".
I ended up getting signed off PE permanently not long after that. (My mum was very understanding as was my doctor who gave me the note).
I honestly hoped schools had stopped this awful way of choosing teams. Whether it's for PE or groups in lessons. It humiliates the non popular/friendless children.

It depends on the purpose of the game. Not all are games like football or netball. Some are for developing a particular skill, say throwing and catching, involving all children repeatedly, and there is no point in having tthe elite in one team and the others failing all the time. Funny how you can tell the winners here.
I developed a strategy at secondary. Get myself in the team with good forwards at hockey (field). Take the left back. place. Then make sure that the teacher always saw me between the ball and the goal. Nevwe had to develop any ball skills!

PE isn’t about winning? It’s about learning about health and physical education.

And all students in the class are expected to learn tbis….?

I want published, peer-reviewed studies that this approach to selecting teams in PE is underpinned by evidence and effective pedagogy - i.e. that it engages learners and improves learning outcomes in PE.

In primary schools not training. The team practices take place outside class lessons,which are for all the children's physical fitness. That we have adulrs over 79 on here still resenting what was done to them un PE shows how it has failed.

I’m amazed they still do this knowing how much impact it can have on children's mental health! Was always picked last and it sucked.

Changing the captain only alters who’s picked first. It doesn’t alter who’s always picked last.

Agree with the last part of your post.

I think this stuff scarred me for life. The PE teachers I had were absolute bullies and even back in the 80s when I was at school I couldn't understand why that cruel system was used to pick teams.
I was always one of the last to be picked, I had health problems and was pretty rubbish at sports. I can still hear the derision from the mean girl sporty kids when they had me land in their team from the last few rejects.
Yeah, just encourages bullying and confidence bashing. Any teacher that endorses this approach has either an evil streak or is super lazy.

The researchers and experts that ScienceNorway has talked to all agree that pupils should not be the ones picking teams for games in gym class. At stake is reduced self-esteem, unhappiness, poor social relationships and destructive class dynamics. In the worst case, more kids can end up skipping class.
Studies show that a performance-based learning environment increases the risk of poor mental health in school.”

https://www.sciencenorway.no/children-and-youth-health-psychology/should-children-be-allowed-to-choose-teams-in-gym-class/1578143

Now you’ve been given several published peer reviewed sources you’ve gone awfully quiet. Where are your published peer reviewed sources proving that humiliating children is in any way good, decent, effective?

“Snowflakes” 🥴 get a grip ffs. We are talking about children. Allowing children to learn without undermining their dignity and self esteem is the very fucking least we, as adults, can do. The teacher doesn’t need your help. She’s an adult.

Being publicly humiliated every week is not a “minor disappointment”. It’s not “disappointment” that’s the issue. It’s the sneering, the exclusion, the mocking, the bullying, that goes alongside this stupid practice. I bet there’s something you were shit at at school. Would you think it okay for teachers to have made you a laughing stock over it every single week? Would it be okay to do this to any child? It wouldn’t be tolerated in an adult workplace, why should it be okay in a school? There’s a reason this practice is not allowed in Scandinavian schools, for example. The research shows that it leads to poor outcomes for the targeted child and absolutely does not foster “resilience” at all.

It’s unusual it’s still getting used . Thought it would have died out with the new mentality of everyone is winners and less competitive attitudes in schools.
definitely a cruel practice. Get on to school. Tell them its modelling a pecking order that is probably the same every week and after the first sporty 8 is probably ALL about popularity. It’s promoting bullying and exclusion. Which will fly against the motto they will have on their walls.

Being chosen to do the picking to 'even things up' didn't help anyway.

Instead of the groaning at the end when each captain had to pick one of the two remaining fat/slow/clumsy/useless losers... we had the groaning and huffing at the start when us fat/slow/clumsy/useless losers were selected to do the picking!

Then the snarky bitchy comments as we picked, dragging feet, rolling eyes, laughing at others etc 'haha Fatty chose you' 'nee ner, Clumsy picked you'.. etc.

It is a lose-lose situation for those who are not good at sports, not popular or both. And by no means are those kids guaranteed to be the ones who excel at academic stuff, as if that were in any way equal in the minds of kids anyway!

These threads come around every so often and every single time, those who didn't care or indeed, were the sporty popular kids, say 'oh well it builds resilience' and 'it didn't scar anyone for life'... And yet every. single. time, the threads are full of people into their 60's, 70s and beyond, stating it absolutely fucking did.

I'm a teacher and I've never done this. I just I've all the kids a random number and if they move to try and get the same number as their mate I deliberately give a different number.