Boys and girls doing different sports in PE

[Notemma]

DD is in Y7 at a small Independent school, 80 kids per year. The whole year does PE at the same time and it’s split into boys/girls then a top set boys and top set girls, bottom set boys and bottom set girls.
DD is quite sporty, does lots of athletics outside of school. At school they do 6 sports over the year Cross Country, Swimming & Athletics every year. Then on the school website it says they will rotate through “Rugby, netball, volleyball, tennis, badminton, basketball, hockey and football”. DD has been looking forward to trying rugby, so decided to ask her teacher when they would be doing it and she was told girls don’t do rugby. DD was quite upset when she got home as she had been looking forward to it.
I decided to call the school and clarify, I was told that boys don’t do netball or hockey and the girls don’t do rugby.

AIBU to think it’s unacceptable to not offer all sports to all children? I don’t mind the classes being separated by sex and ability but I think every class should do the same sports. Should I complain?

Touch Rugby isn’t a contact sport, I don’t think?

I mean I don’t believe any sport is only for a specific sex. I do agree they shouldn’t compete against the opposite sex.

They already make the kids do sports they don’t want to do, DD says everyone hates Cross Country and Swimming but they do it every single year. There is no reason rugby can’t be added to the rotation for girls.

Also suggesting that gymnastics or diving are “girls” sports is truly absurd.

And far more than Sailing and Horse Riding are great for everyone (athletics, tennis, cycling, badminton, table tennis, volleyball to name just a few!)

Touch rugby would be fine @Sharptonguedwoman

I always wanted to play cricket at school but stuck with shitty rounders. YANBU op, complain.

@Notemma the rationale for cross county and swimming are that these are great for all round fitness, so you get the benefits of both in most other sports. Swimmers are well known to be brilliant at sports they barely train at, as their bodies have learnt to work well anaerobically.

Find your local Girls Rugby club... they ate increasingly popular but still at the stage of crying out for players (especially U12s as U11s us mixed, but U12s us the first girls only team and only one that is a single aged group.). DD loves her team.

Definitely men competing in beach volleyball in the Olympics. It was a sport that got little attention until the Netherlands decided that a convicted child rapist was a good role model.

If your daughter wants to play rugby, is there a local club she can join? When my son was younger there were girls in the team up until about U11, when they split into boys and girls. Some clubs may now have all girl teams at all ages.
That way, she can see if she likes it before you make a big hoo-ha at the school about trying a sport she turns out having no interest in after all.
(Obviously, if she ends up liking it, as she may well do, it’s worth speaking to the school.)

My DD1's school is games and pe in separate sessions. PE seems to be the same things for boys and girls, so a rotation through everything. Games is different for boys and girls, with no choice until year 9. They offered girls rugby to her year's girls this year, but didn't have enough interest for it to run, despite bring a massive school. Possibly complicated by parents being able to opt out of contact sport. They do run a cross year group extra curricular rugby option for girls.

My DD2's school said, when we were show around, that girls and boys can do any of the sports, but in reality it is split and girls don't do rugby.

Not so sure about your assertion here...

Being a good swimmer doesn't make you good at ball sports for example. Or gymnastics.

Oh well mine must have been defective then, they all quite liked it (bar one who only ever liked football).

There will also be some boys that hate rugby and football but will have no choice but to do it, some may even have a preference for something like netball.

If some boys are forced to do rugby and football then it isn't going to harm other boys to be forced to do netball.

DD (Y8) does rugby, cricket and football in PE, she loves it. The girls and boys all do lessons together too.

The girls and boys were always separated for PE when I was in secondary but at her school that doesn’t happen until Y9.

Touch Rugby has no tackles. Not the same game.

AHH yes. I forgot about beach volleyball. Good shout.

When I was in primary school our classes were quite small so we had no choice but to train for netball matches against the boys. I think that's the reason why we were the best team in the area, the boys were very competitive and made us up our game. I'm in my forties now so I find this attitude that certain sports are for boys/girls very backwards.

I took up touch rugby as a woman in my 50s
Love the game - despite never being a team sport person before. And I've played safely and happily in both women's and mixed teams.

My sons played hockey in boys teams through a local club. Never understood why it's seen as a girls' sport. It was universally loathed by girls when I was at school.

Girls rugby is the fastest growing sport at my son's school and has led to a lot of girls joining the local rugby club to play on weekends. Just because it's not the traditional girls sport, doesn't mean they shouldn't be able to give it a go!!

Also, the Women's World Cup is in England this summer. (Presuming you are in England OP!). Perfect time to give the girls a go at school.

Absolutely complain. It's sexist drivel that belongs in the past. It's no different to all kids having DT on the timetable, but boys doing metalwork and girls good tech. Girls and boys should have equal access to the curriculum. Currently they don't.

No loads of schools do boys hockey and there are boys’ and mens’ hockey clubs and teams all over the UK as well as female teams / clubs of course .

A friend's daughter has just been selected for the GB women's rugby league team

I have a friend who works in rehab for head injuries. She’s dead against girls doing these types of traditionally male sports after what she has learned about repeated concussions. I thought it was mainly bone and ligament damage to be wary of.

I will say though, I’m saddened by the attitude that if it’s a traditional girls sport it must be shit and embarrassing but if it’s a traditional boys sport it must be cool and exciting. Are girls sports genuinely crap? Or do we just think they’re crap because girls play them?

Isn’t it usually ice hockey that boys play in the US and Canada? Though they usually just call it hockey but they mean ice hockey. Field hockey isn’t so popular or widely accepted for boys there it seems. It’s a niche sport for boys.

I wouldn’t want my (hypothetical) boys playing rugby because of the brain injury risk which there’s mounting evidence of and more awareness of. It’s also looking likely that contact sports, perhaps due to concussions, increase the risk of MND.