Should sports day be optional?

[Nothinglefttosaynow]

I remember dreading sports day as a child, I was slow & awkward and always near the end if not last. It was public embarrassment for me & I dreaded it. My nephew has sports day next week & is already worrying about it. He is fit and healthy but not a fast runner & has come last for the past 3 years. I absolutely agree with kids taking part in sport at school & at home, but I wonder if forcing kids who clearly don't enjoy it to participate in front of a crowd is fair.

Nope, absolutely not. I will never teach my kids to run away from their problems. I tell them to go out there and give their absolute best, if that’s what they do and they come last I’m proud of them, if they win I’m proud of them and the same for anything inbetween. You know what, they’ve won things at sports day and they’ve come last in things at sports day and they’ve done it with a smile on their face. It’s the same with anything, they don’t have to be as good at maths or spelling as their friends, as long as they give it their best.

I hate this comparison nobody holds up SATs results and makes kids stand in order from highest to lowest mark…

and the kids don’t run in private where nobody can see….

the two things are nothing alike

For some kids who struggle academically it’s the only thing they are good at. Let them have their moment! If my daughter was judged on her sports performance she’d be top of the class, as it is she’s at the bottom every single day except for one. So she feels like some of your kids do on sports day every single day bar one!
Please think about others outside your child and their experience, and maybe explain, as we do that for some kids this is one of the few things that makes them feel ok about themselves.

We didn't do any real sports on sports day. It was more like taskmaster type silly games.

Yes, it should be optional.

It's taken 5 years with competent PE teachers to get ds past the misery that primary school sports day did.

I think sports day should be optional with the other option being in class. The same as the nativity and any other show and tell spectacle.

PE should be compulsory and a daily activity.

@Halloumidays sporty kids 'have their moment' every PE lesson, why does there also need to be sports day?

I think fitness is so important, but sports day puts people off more than en encourages it

Not all kids love to be watched- like the nativity and Christmas show

It's one day, at worst it will be a bad memory. It's not just running, it's other sports, they won't come last in all of them.

It's not a good idea to always protect kids from failing. Failing is part of life and teaches resilience.

My teenage son came last in many races in primary school as well as never being good at sport but he's very academic and recently finished top in his school for his maths A level mock. He's also great at music and acting (hasn't always been but he worked hard).

I was thinking the other day how good it was he also had the experience of failing at stuff. It's not good to completely protect kids from ever failing as it isn't realistic for adult life. He'll be more resilient because he hasn't always found things easy.

Dyspraxic and autistic DS was forced to do a skipping race in Yr4 or Yr5 with all his NT classmates. The next year he wasn't feeling great so I didn't think twice about keeping him off.

Sports day should be fun and should encourage kids to love sport - otherwise what's the point? Unfortunately for many kids it is shit, especially if you have SEN.

Humiliating yourself in front of your whole school as well as all their parents is not teaching resilience - and people are incredibly misguided if they think it is.

When I was at school you were ranked in your class in every subject, and the whole class knew where everyone was ranked - so sports day absolutely was a chance for the sportier kids to receive their ranking.

Obviously that doesn’t happen now, but I do think there is still value in the experience of doing something you don’t necessarily want to do, but doing it to the best of your ability. I used to be terrified of doing presentations at work, but I faced up to it and gradually got better. That is a very public experience. Confronting challenges, facing fear, that’s how we grow.

Starting flags need to be waved, older children can present prizes or medals to younger ones, there can be a range of sports offered.

Please think others outside your child and their experience, and consider that for some kids who struggle academically they also find sports day an additional struggle and humiliation.

@Rewis With respect, that's a very adult and naive view.

For the kids, it doesn't matter what the activities are. There will be winners and losers, and children humiliated in front of an audience.

There is no justification for it.

I just said what we did in school. I didn't really present an opinion. However, I'm pretty sure regular PE classes were a lot more humiliating than having us be divided into teams and sliding on a soap tarp, waterballoon battleship or trying to build a tower from firewood. There was also some type of trying to get a bucket from top of a stick or something. Sure there are winners and losers. Like there are in academics as well. I have no memory if winners were announced. My guess is that evey grade was divide in colours and then those were counted together or something.

Let them have their moment let the kids who don’t run go and cheer them on and support them let e dry one enjoy the day. They don’t need to be humiliated. It shouldn’t be a case of take part and be embarrassed or skive off kids should be able to enjoy being there supporting their friends.

Why do people keep saying what they think should and shouldn't happen, as though that affects what actually does happen? All very well to say nobody should be embarrassed, have the piss taken out of them etc. But they still do. And some of those kids will also be the ones who struggle academically too.

Because... funnily enough, if enough people talk about it, there's likely to be teachers involved who could influence/make decisions about how to run sports day differently, whilst including the whole school without shame or forced competition for then minority if children who would and are adversely affected.

Out of a school of 400, they could have 10% helper positions or something (laying out the hula hoops, counting laps, manning water stations, helping add up scores, fetching the bean bags after they've been thrown far, keeping a register of their team mates in the day, marking them in for events, coming up with a team chant before hand and having them all sing it to support their team mates) ... Loads of things really.

Yes, but the weaker mathematics students aren't then forced to publicly do sums on the stage it anything like that.

Just on point 7. More than having a good job or attending a good university I want my child to be a good person. The attitude that arbitrary thing X is compulsory so everyone must do it isn't one I would encourage him to have. And I wouldn't view compulsory sport, regardless of interest, skill or enjoyment to be at all a positive or advantageous thing.

Before I get jumped on I know that most people who have attended independent school are perfectly nice individuals. It's more that I don't feel compulsory sport is intrinsic to being a good person. I get that some people really like sport and that other people don't find it too bad, but I can also see that there are many people who gain no benefit from being made to participate in sport and risk physical and mental harm if forced to participate.

People need to do much better at setting out what they actually mean, then. If what's actually being advocated is a changed sports day, some of the posts simply saying bullying shouldn't happen are doing a poor job of articulating that.

No, it should not be optional. From the sounds on everyone on this thread, everyone would opt out! I presume most of you are ND too. It’s meant to be fun. I was crap at sport but that’s why there’s silly races like egg and spoon and the sack race.

I bet he opts out of things as ab adult rather than facing them.

Except for many children, it isn’t fun. and silly races don’t make a difference.