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.

My kids primary school had a great way of organising sports day, the first half everyone competed in their class groups, all in different colour teams with games - egg and spoon, bean bags on heads, picking up obstacles. The emphasis was on phone and they all cheered each other on and enjoyed it. The second half was the more serious events - not everyone competed and those who’d did were chosen/volunteered and they were the talented athletes. Everyone else sat and cheered on their colour team. It was always a great fun day and although I’m sure some kids hated it, no one was left to run a race and come miles behind feeling rubbish. And the sporty kids got their chance to shine.

I think as long as there is a range of events the. It should be for everyone. I’m sorry but in life you can’t just ‘opt out’ of things that you dont fancy doing ( well I know people try but it doesn’t lead to success) it’s literally one day. Cheer on your friends, do the silly obstacle race if you don’t like to run. No one cares and the only parents watching you are yours. Honestly. Every year MN gets its knickers on a twist about those ‘poor children’ it’s really a bit ridiculous. We aren’t doing our kids any favours but constantly trying to shield them from life.

That's not really an accurate comparison when all children attend PE lessons.

I hated sports day as did one of my DDs, coming last isn't nice BUT I was top of my class the rest of the year, she won the regional maths competition even, 100% in her gcse etc. perhaps it's good to experience what it's like for other much of the year

@frankentall if children are made to feel that way because their team loses then that's something that needs to be addressed by teachers, but it's not a reason to let people opt out.

I'm also fairly certain lots of children do feel similarly when they never win any kind of academic achievement and yet Susie and Billy always do.

They also attend music lessons.

I'd think (and in my experience) on an every day level you don't get told whose top of the class for English/French/Maths etc

That certainly wasn't my experience of school. There are upper and lower sets for most academic subjects and used to be different papers depending on your academic ability.

Well he did get something - he got the top result in the year.

I think most sports day winners don’t get anything meaningful other than knowing they won first place?

@PotatoPudding general music lessons aren't the same as private ones where you learn a specific instrument though.

Sports day is based on general sports not on anything specialised - or at least, that was certainly the case where I went to school.

Team games and “silly” games aren’t always the solution.

For team games you often get moaned or shouted at for being terrible.

And if you are hopeless, and unco-ordinated at sport, chances are you will be hopeless and uncoordinated at silly games too.

Children don’t differentiate, why does it make it better being the centre of attention while you fail to manage to balance a beanbag on your head or step through a hoop, so that slows you right down, rather than when you are slower at running? In fact parents are more likely to laugh at the silly activities, so you could say they are worse.

The problem is often that when you are much slower, you are the only one left for the audience to look at when everyone else has finished.
Often it’s more embarrassing everyone watching you while you fall over in your sack, trip over your skipping rope or lose your egg for the umpteenth time than if you are just running. It’s not always more fun, those activities aren’t necessarily less competitive in the eyes of a child.

If you genuinely want to make things inclusive, you need to start properly thinking from a different perspective.

There's no "shaming" of those struggling with English and Maths.

Art is usually dropped by those not interested or no good at it in years 8 or 9.

This is what happens at our school too.

Plus it's not just racing. They also do throwing those foam javelins and bean bags. So actually, a kid like me that wasn't a runner, was actually pretty good at throwing. And it meant I could take part.

I think it's really bad for kids to be told they can not take part and parents reinforce the belief a child isn't sporty.

Sports is important for the mental health of academic individuals as well as physical health and I wish I'd known sport was more than "just running" - swimming, walking. It's so important.

It's not just "coming last". If it's a crap school without control of bullying etc., it's what comes with it, i.e. the ridicule, jeering, name calling, and general bullying that arises out of "coming last".

There's no "shaming" of those struggling with English and Maths.

I really don't agree with this - especially in secondary school where there are lower ability sets and even lower ability papers for those who struggle.

Even when I was in primary we had lower sets for academic subjects even though they tried to pretend it was based on other things. The kids knew.

Have you asked the kids if they agree. I remember being mortified at my inability to understand maths when everyone else in the class seemed to pick things up easily.

Yes, you know which 20-30 pupils are in each group, but you don't know which particular child is really crap at it, i.e. bottom of the bottom group. It's not personal!

With a sports day, it's blatantly obvious which kids are no good, usually they're the ones who are grossly obese, or have no co-ordination skills, etc. It's those traits which the bullies pick up on and use against them.

@taxguru you certainly knew at my school - results even used to get put up
on the wall for everyone to see!

I still remember doing spelling tests where you went around the room and had to spell stuff out loud. One girl (who has since been diagnosed dyslexic) always got it wrong and often got teased and laughed at for it.

It should absolutely be optional.

I hated sports day. It was a ritual of humiliation for me and I felt I would rather have been just about anywhere else on that day each year.

I left school in 1984. Sports Days were shit right through primary school and secondary school.

Of my own three DDs, only one was truly sporty. Neither of the other two liked team sports or athletics but were often forced to participate. At least one of them actually hated it.

There should be options to participate, spectate or just do something else useful.

@taxguru I used a few examples but I clearly mean all other subjects.

I also remember having to read books out loud in class and the teacher would go round picking kids at random, or doing the same thing with times tables.

Of course it was obvious that Jane was the slowest reader or that Tommy wasn't great at sums. And those kids had to go through that everyday.

Kids aren't stupid - they know when they're the worst at something even if it's not officially announced anywhere.

I absolutely hated sport and PE at school. I was fat and slow and it was humiliating.
I'm retired from teaching now but in the last school I worked at, we had a small playground that wasn't suitable for a whole school sports day so Y6 would organise some activities for each class (after SATs) and each class would go out and have fun. We didn't put it in the newsletter so parents weren't involved. I wish I'd had something like that when I'd been at primary school back in the 70s!

I think it should be optional in theory. But in practice this just doesn't work. As soon as one is allowed to opt out, many others will follow, and probably more likely to be the ones who are not as athletic.

Which will then be followed by cries that sports day is elitist and some children are discriminated against. And it will probably bias against girls. My 8 year old daughter was the slowest in her class last year. Yesterday they did practice for sports day and my daughter came first in every race. She asked her much faster friend 'what hapenned'. The response was "I like X boy and if I beat him it will upset him and he won't like me anymore". My daughter got moaned up by a couple of the boys for beating them. So I have a feeling that mny more girls than boys will opt out if able, creating a divide and feeding into "boys are stronger/faster than girls" narrative.

None of that directly affects the other kids though. Most will be only half listening and either reading/doing their own work or just day dreaming anyway. If a child does or says something ridiculous, at worst it's a quick giggle and soon forgotten.

When it comes to team sports etc., a kid who's poor can cause the team to lose. That's when the bullying etc is at it's worst! The sporty kids get very annoyed when they've put loads of effort into something, only for their team to lose because "Little Jimmy" came last, or let a goal in, or misjudged his throw etc.

Exactly. Kids have about as much experience of each sport as they do with each instrument.

But it isn't always speed sports. My child can get a place in the egg and spoon as she realises that if she is steady and doesn't drop it, she can get ahead.

Last year they did a 3 legged race- 2 of the slower children won- they had worked out a brilliant little march which meant they didn't fall over. They got a massive cheer and there were children falling down all over the place.

A good school will put on a variety of events which will cater for everyone.