Is this to be expected at inter-school sports match

[NINP]

Dd (Y9) goes to a local grammar school. We live in an area with a small number of super-selectives so most of the kids come in from a distance, often with an hour’s journey on coach or train to get to the school. The school is in an economically depressed area - high crime, high social deprivation, but the pupils who attend tend to be much more advantaged, socially, and about a third come from private primaries.

They had a football match against another local school in the same area, and dd was punched in the stomach and elbow, tripped up, called a posh little bitch, called a fucking little snob and pushed around repeatedly. Her team mates experienced similar. DD’s school plays other grammar schools, comprehensives and private schools and she’s never had this at any of the sports matches she’s attended. The referee (from the local school) ignored the fouls unless they were absolutely blatant.

Should I email dd’s school or the other school
and let them know dd is still in pain and that this behaviour took place? Or should I tell dd to put it down to experience and just let it go?

Your DDs school has I assume a level of care towards her when sports fixtures take place. The school should be aware of the injury suffered, and perhaps suggest that your DDs school refuses to play against this school in future. I doubt if a neutral referee could be found.

I'm a safeguarding lead in a school. If any of our students behaved like this at a sporting event against another school I would 100% want to know and would be working with the PE department to make sure it wasn't repeated.

Let DD's school know and leave them to take it up with the other school. They can collect information from the rest of the team, and will hopefully take it up with the other school. If they play them again, I would hope it would be made very clear that any such behaviour would mean being benched immediately, and not invited to play in the next match.

punched in the stomach and elbow, tripped up, called a posh little bitch, called a fucking little snob and if this happened to you outside the school environment this would be considered assault. You can't just punch someone in the stomach and expect it to be brushed off.

Did your daughter raise it with her PE teacher? Whether she has or hasn’t I would inform the school, it’s supposed to be fun and she shouldn’t be bullied or assaulted like that. Let your school deal with it but I would pull her from future fixtures with that school.

Did your daughter's coach not notice any of this or her team mates??

I have watched a million inter school fixtures over the years and never seen anything like this - was it hockey?

But definitely email whichever teacher accompanied them to the match.

I have just asked dd whether the teachers knew and she said that they saw what was happening - and told their coaches afterwards as well. So probably no need for me to email school. It was football. Dd also plays hockey for her school team, and that can get quite physical, so she’s not an innocent with respect to contact sports - but hockey has not got to the level of punching and tripping seen here.

The PE teacher/coach should have objected and taken the kids off the pitch. Why didn't they do anything?

My DS team had similar and were being racially abused by the opposition. Coach spoke to opposition coach, told them it was completely unacceptable, we're not having that, offending team kicked out of tournament.