to think every year group should be able to play?

[GoldieLocks09]

My DS is in Reception, since starting school he's taken a real interest in football and absolutely loves going to school because he gets to play footie with his friends at break times.

Him and his friends have been told by a specific teacher that they're not allowed to play any more, apparently it's just for yrs 1-6, even though it's been fine since September.

Apparently the older kids love playing with them and allow them to join their games which may be part of the issue, that they're bigger / stronger, but to take it away completely seems unfair?

I’d check and see if that’s accurate and if so, what’s the reason. There may be a perfectly sensible reason, there may not, or they may have been confused.

Many schools arrange for the reception children to play separately as they do not have the right skills or may get hurt playing more boisterous games with older children. There is undoubtedly a good reason.

Lots of schools have totally ridiculous rules about football at break times. Tag too. Too dangerous apparently 🙄

Maybe they are heating hurt because they're smaller?

Football is banned at breaks in our school as it causes so many issues and arguments,

I think having 11 year olds and 4 years olds playing football together is a recipe for disaster.

They Should have a rota system whereby ks1 play one day ks2 the next or similar

Can they not allocate a separate part of the playground just for the infants? My kids went to a tiny little village school and even there they had a corner just for the KS1 kids.

I'd suspect there have ben some injuries.

Infants and Juniors normally play separately for this reason - and in the infants mine went to the reception were separated too.

British Bulldog was banned at my secondary after a number of injuries. The teachers wouldn't have cared if we'd played it if it wasn't for that.

Reception and KS2 children playing football together is a recipe for disaster. The older boys wouldn't likely hurt them on purpose but you know how rough kids get, an 11 year old could hurt a 4/5 year old really quite badly.

Our reception kids have their own playground (with actually really fun play equipment that the older ones don't have!) then there is a rota for the football area as KS1 and KS2 aren't even allowed to play football together. They take turns.

I would imagine it is accurate, and I wouldn't challenge it.... because the decision is sensible!

I wouldn’t be so sure that all the older kids love playing with the little ones, at least not all the time. Nor should they have to, they are children who deserve to play with their peers too.

There are lots of good reasons for this.

Unfortunately, parents keep suing schools when their children get injured during games and sports. We’ve experienced it in my school. Just recently there was a mum on mumsnet asking about whether she should sue a school because her child had been injured even though the school acted swiftly, identified the problem and took immediate action to ensure it couldn’t happen again. There were people on there that thought schools should have a written risk assessment for every piece of equipment in school and every activity. It was quite an eye opener.

This is why we can’t have nice things.

aswell as the obvious injury risk, most reception kids don’t have the skills to play a team game like football at their age, they get upset/angry at not being able to kick the ball!
it is frustrating having to referee a game of football for them never mind having to do it with older kids mixed in too who can share and understand the rules of the game

Is it possible that one of the little ones has been hurt playing with the older boys? I'd go in and ask, there's probably a reason for the change. Could the reception children be allocated a separate area to play footy?

It will be so they don't get hurt rather than a slight against their footballing skills.

DDs school had a rota for this reason, (Reception-yr2, yr3/4, yr5/6). They either had the ball sports area at morning break, lunch break or afternoon break.

I would be surprised if the older kids really do love playing with the little kids all the time. It's hard work for older kids as they always need to be careful / make allowances. They may want the opportunity to just play with their friends for a bit without having to worry about littles ones.

I don't know how big your school is but we only ever have one year group playing football at a time and that is chaotic enough!
Maybe request a day for reception children to have the space to play a game, but I can quite see why they don't want them to get involved as they may get hurt.

Our school has a rota for the football pitch with set breaks for separate years and also for boys and girls (so that girls don't get dominated out of the game which was otherwise happening). So the football kids just don't get to play football most break times, but they all get their turn.

I agree reception should get a chance to use the designated football space just as other years get to and I would ask casually what the system is.

I don't think they should all be playing together really. There's a huge difference between a 10 year old and a 5 year old in strength and ability so either the little ones are going to get hurt or the big ones don't get to play properly.

It's good for children to play a variety of games at playtime, not just always football.

Our school also has staggered playtimes, though, with 3 year groups out at once. So a 5 year old would never be on the playground at the same time as a 10 year old and the rota doesn't take that long to cycle round.

My sons school swap usage of the football area between year groups on different days. A year 5 or 6 booting a ball at full pelt can cause a lot of injury, a lot of them have been playing with clubs by then and can really kick it hard. I know this as have had a few kf my sons kicks flying towards me. It can knock a reception age child clean off his feet. Also can get a bit heated in the football area. Check with school as they may have allocated times.

My children’s school segregates by age - each group gets a couple of goes at football per week. A KS1 child was accidentally but quite seriously injured by a y6 child footballing a couple of years ago and after that whole school football was banned. As sweet as it is when big ones want to include little ones there are much safer games than football for that and I completely understand why school doesn’t allow it.

I’d ask the school about reception class getting a turn, but I’d be prepared to hear that it actually hasn’t been “fine since September” and there are reasons. My DC2’s class got banned from football for a while when younger, it just caused too much squabbling that spilled into lesson time and had too many upset children.