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?

Oh! How I hated this. I was not an athletic child. I was surrounded by classmates (all girl school) who were stronger, taller and def athletic. I was always the one to be picked last. That was about 50+ years ago and I still remember the humiliation. Arg.

👏👏👏

I actually complained to my daughters school about this (granted was 20 years ago)...i said it's segregating for those kids who are least 'popular' and also encourages and perpetuates bullying...and facilitates any bullying that exists. Completely ignored.
It angers me this is still happening

It's interesting to compare with other subjects. Poor language development? Special needs group. Poor numeracy skills? TA 1-1 support. But PE. Nope.It's your fault, don't practice enough, are lazy. Where are special needs for PE? Much more useful. It doesn't have to be full blown dyspraxia to need it. Hand eye coordination, balance skills, lifting things safely, everyone needs to know how to use their body well.
Got to use a ladder later, with care for that hip joint I couldn't have hurt because I came last. (I shouldn't bear ill will to a long dead nasty woman, but when it twinges, I do.)

My junior school did this. I was always one of the last ones. I was actually OK at sport, not bullied at all and I had a great little group of friends. It was never one of my friends that got to pick though. Even my little group of friends always got picked before me.

Almost 40 years later though I still remember it and the cringing embarrassment I felt of pretty much always being in the last 2 or 3.

I was quite shocked when DD13 mentioned the other day how she hates how her PE teacher does this to pick teams. I honestly thought no one would seriously still be doing this when there are so many easy, non humiliating, options to divide a class.

All I can think is the PE teachers were never the last to be picked, so they don't understand and all talk about inclusiveness has gone somewhat over their heads.

PE peer group picking and non differentiation in lessons by lazy PE teachers helped cause my daughters severe Anorexia. She had severe dyspraxia and hypermobility and was always the last picked that nobody wanted, was sniggered at standing alone waiting, had to listen to the comments etc. Also shouted at for not trying harder by peers and teachers. She developed a phobia of any sport and during lockdown when all her friends were trying to get fit by running she turned to dieting instead as felt all sport wasn’t for her. The impact of PE lessons has been noted by psychs during her EHCP process.

She has just developed the courage to start swimming completely alone now. 😊

Differentiation and non peer group team picking should be happening by default imvho alongside a bigger proportion of PE lessons given to individual sports.

Well yeah but in real.life its people who enjoy sport and has a aptitude for it that join sports teams
We don't force people to try out for the England football team even though they hate football and have no interest in it then humiliate them when they are inevitably hopeless. do we
PE is part of the national curriculum everyone HAS to do it regardless of ability there are fairer ways of picking teams hen humiliating kids.

Picking teams ought to be a much smaller part of PE anyway. How much is anyone really learning from endless half hearted games of rounders and dodgeball.

Exactly and half the time those who struggle are picked to field yards away and end up standing doing nothing to improve skills. In maths or Eng lessons those who struggle get support to improve skills in a kind empathetic way. Teachers are judged on progress. PE teachers seem to be allowed to do what they want and entirely ignore the very set of pupils who need help the most.

It's the equivalent of an English teacher sitting all the less able kids at the back, and expecting them to write an essay on a book they've never read. Humiliating them and setting them up for failure.

For which they’d be rated inadequate by Ofsted. I don’t get the lack of giving a shit Ofsted have as regards providing quality PE provision for all. Particularly so when you consider current obesity rates. PE provision is clearly failing.

I was always picked last for anything that wasn't netball. It was utterly humiliating! I got picked earlier for netball because I was tall and was good at goal defence!

Obviously, DC are not accurate reporters of everything which goes on in school but when it's a reliable 16 year old telling you that this has been going on once or twice a week for years, that's a good indicator of accuracy.

It's also not how sport works in real life because my last-picked DS is perceived as being bad at sport by the other kids rather than actually bad at it. (He was classed as gifted and talented for PE in primary, trains and competes regularly and is really fit.) If someone were picking on talents or potential, and had been since Y7, he'd have been included but that's not how other children pick. He's not one of the popular kids and doesn't make a big deal about his own sporting achievements in school. That said, he would also stand up for the rights of his mates who get picked last because they aren't good at sports to be picked fairly too.

Why is it only none sporty kids that need resilience ?
Why do you think its its ok for kids to be humiliated every week because they are crap.at sport?
Should we routinely humiliate kids that struggle academically to build their resilience🤔

This was me at secondary school in the seventies. l. To be fair, I was so hopeless at PE that I would have picked myself last. It really hurts at the time, though, because it is such a public humiliation and is a form of bullying on the part of the teacher and team captains. No wonder so many people dislike PE and have horrible memories of it. How is this supposed to encourage anyone to carry on with physical exercise? Surely, someone somewhere could have developed a better method of selection by now.

And the award for most ignorant post from somebody who hasn’t bothered to read the thread goes to…..

I hated this at school and I hate it now. They say it helps see if there is an underlying problem going on but no need to humiliate the poor kid week after week who's constantly picked last. (Which happens to my DD, who is bullied, and school are aware).
In my school I was good at PE so didn't get picked last but I still hated it and always felt awful for the kid left standing there as last pick.

I was always the picker at school because I was games captain for my house 5 years in a row (was just one of those kids good at all sports). Obviously I picked the other sporty kids, but also always picked my best friend first even though she was crap at sport - I still wanted her on my team! Just checked with my boys and they do this at DS1s private secondary school most of the time apparently, but also sometimes “sir” will pick the teams. DS1 prefers when kids pick the teams as it’s the oldest boys who pick so as one of the youngest in the year he never has the stress of picking but equally he is very sporty so is usually picked in the first few and has a better chance of being in a better team / team with his friends. I sort of think this is ok at secondary level as the kids all know who is good at sports anyway and they do tend to pick by ability not by friendship groups. I was quite shocked though that they also do this at DS2s primary school! Again, not all the time but most of the time. DS2 is the sportiest kid in his whole school though so it doesn’t bother him, but I can imagine it bothers the kids who aren’t good at sports.

In both schools, this is only during games lessons, for school teams the teachers pick the children to be on the teams. At primary school it is then 50% kids who are good at that sport, and 50% kids who are favourites of the teacher doing the picking regardless of how good they are at sport, which means the school rarely wins anything. Very frustrating for my son. At the secondary, the teachers pick on merit only, which is much fairer. They do also enter tournaments designed for less sporty kids and pick the teams appropriately so all the boys who want to, get an opportunity to represent the school at different levels which is great.

Would love to know what subject your kids don’t excel at. I know they aren’t good at everything and so do you. Should we publicly humiliate and isolate them every single week for their entire school career or support and help them? Christ almighty indeed 🥴

Please can you explain why its a good idea?

@LittlePinkLampshade would you be happy enough if we established this sort of thing in, say, music lessons? I’d have done very well there. I’d have been delighted. Would you? Would you think other kids, or your kids, are pathetic and have “no resilience” if they don’t like to be disgraced every week because they’re tone deaf and not interested in music? Anxiously awaiting your reply!

You’re very focused on sports. Some people aren’t interested in sports but are very talented in other subjects. Try to reimagine this with music, art, English, as the subject.

I’m in my 23rd year of teaching PE and I have never done this and totally disagree with it . We were actually told in our training year not to do this for all these reasons!