If your DD attends a private mixed day school, how plentiful are the sporting fixtures for the girls?

[underoverunder]

Girls sports seems to be being gradually side-lined at my DDs' school. The eldest has faired better in terms of fixtures but as younger DD has come up the school there seem to be fewer B and C team fixtures for the main sports. I'm not big on complaining, especially as my DDs are on scholarship/bursary places but it has been getting worse and the discrepancy between the marketing and pats on the back over their sports provision and the reality for the majority of the girls is irritating.

In your DDs school, for hockey/netball/summer sport - for U12/U13/U14/U15/U16 - which of them have a/b/c/d team?

Answers are welcome from other day school parents - single sex or state schools if relevant. I just don't wish to compare with boarding schools which would not be a good comparison.

Thank you if you take time to answer.

There are more teams and matches in the lower years - they want to give everyone a chance at playing competitively, even if they are not very good. The older they get, the more competitive it gets.

DD was in the U15 B team for hockey last year, and they had matches most weekends. There were also (I think) a C and possibly a D team, but they had very few external matches. I'm not sure how exactly how it works this coming year (she'll be in yr11) but I have a feeling the teams are joint with sixth form, so they are the overall school A/B/C teams, and therefore it is even harder to get a place on the team.

DD's school also offers a lot more options for games from yr10 up, as by that age if you will have worked out if you don't like or aren't good at hockey, it makes more sense to do something you do enjoy or are good at, so there are fewer girls playing hockey overall. They can do things like fencing or badminton etc instead. I wish my school had done that back in the day - I hated hockey from day 1, and used to hide in the changing rooms or sneak off to the library where possible.

Good point. It would also be interesting to know what alternate sports/activities are offered to those who don't like/don't make the teams higher up the school years.

Fixtures also depend on what teams other schools can put up.

Matches are scheduled every week, once or twice, and afterschool practice once a week. However apart from a few token d team appearances at u13/12 dd has largely avoided competitive sport and had options such as dance or fitness instead of netball/lacrosse.

Mine did not go to a mixed school but sport was taken very seriously. It had around 420 girls but by no means were there A, B, C etc teams. They had a philosphy of being in it to win it. However, that suited mine as they were not sporty and did loads of other things. I cannot imagine anything worse than being in the F team. They found much greater pleasure and had a fantastic all round education by doing other things.

The school did run loads of sport for non sporty types though. My DDs did badminton, aerobics, dance, used the gym and jogged around the school grounds having a natter (they boarded). There were loads of tennis courts too. Just not team sports for the non sporty. So there were always opportunities for maintaining fitness and many girls did carry on with what they liked instead of being coached for the teams which was very intensive. They both took part in sports day for their houses every year so practiced for that. However having to race against the junior world champion at 100 m did not help self esteem!

Sounds like we're the other end of the scale. My two DD's are at a single sex day school. They run A/B/C and many D teams from U8-U16 in hockey/lacrosse/netball/rounders plus A/B in rowing/swimming/tennis. One lunchtime and one after school practice a week, and parents have to make a commitment to ensuring daughters attend weekend matches if selected in a team. By no means does sport dominate (its educationally selective, no sporting scholarships) but they do win quite a lot of stuff.

Thanks for answers so far. I realise it is difficult for schools to get the balance right.

I feel that in Year 7 and Year 8, pupils should have equal opportunity for all abilities to play competitively (if they want to). Children are developing at different rates and have different starting abilities depending on where they went to school up to Year 7. A and B teams ought not to be set in stone from Year 7, but this is what tends to happen, because those who start with less experience in the sports, get fewer matches, and it is harder to catch up.

As my younger DD has entered the school, the focus seems to ave gone back to nurturing the already talented and just paying lip service to the less experienced. It's a shame, because that did not happen in my older DDs year group. Which was good, because some of the early on sporty girls, weren't keen or committed by the time they got to Year 10, and the school had plenty of other girls to pick from to make up the teams. Being keen and committed paid off in the end, regardless of ability in Year 7. However, at the top end of the school, for those who do not wish to do the term's team sport, there isn't a lot else offered, or a lot of encouragement given to keep the girls enthused by sports/physical activity.

Like I say, it's hard to get the balance right, and I was curious to know if other schools handle it better.

I suspect it has a lot to do with how successful the school is in each sport. At the school that DD will be attending next year they do incredibly well in girls’ hockey so play a lot of matches and do a lot of training. I think they have B and C teams at every age level and even D teams for lower years. They are very pushy about girls playing and making themselves available for training and matches. Rugby and boys’ hockey have a similar training schedule but only B teams, they tend not to get very far in competitions and seem to be pushed less.

I have a son at a co-ed day school where the parents of girls complained that the girls sport didn't really compare with the boys. However, I have also had a girl at another very sporty all-girls day school. Compared to her brother it seems that there are just fewer fixtures for girls. Boys tend to have fixtures every Saturday morning both winter and summer, whereas she had occasional fixtures against boarding schools and a few tournaments but not the week-in week-out Saturday commitment like the boys.

What I'm trying to say, and I don't think I have expressed it very well, is that my observation is that there are just fewer fixtures overall for girls than there are for boys and if you are comparing one with the other at a co-ed school, it wouldn't necessarily be any different at an all girls school.

Another observation from my own observations is that a reasonably sporty child will get a better sporting experience at a co-Ed school, where they are a bigger fish in a smaller pond.

Yes - that is probably what helped my older DD. She had more opportunity to represent the school because there were not so many girls in her year group. With DD2 the school have managed to increase their female intake and as I can see my DD2 - who is less naturally inclined towards sports - is not going to get much chance to play in matches, I am noticing that there are no alternatives offered to her.

I agree that there are more boys fixtures and that is perhaps down to there being more boys teams available to compete against and where netball is concerned, the state schools local to us only have an A team and sometimes a B team to play against.

I miss rounders though. Boys cricket = fixtures every week for every age group. Girls cricket = scant fixtures with teams that cross two age groups. I used to like standing around in the sunshine watching a happy gaggle of girls play rounders. I don't know why they couldn't have kept both going.

Not great to be honest
Part of the problem is that the school is quite small but it’s mostly that the school has a very very strong Netball team which wins most games so any girls who show any sporty aptitude are pressured into playing netball. For example there was an attempt to start a girls footie team but practise was the same night as netball and the netball coach was VERY determined that none of “her” girls would go.
At last parents evening I said that I I felt the girls PE provision was inadequate expecting some argument but she said she totally agreed and had been trying to get more resources for a while. She hoped a new Head would help and there are promising signs for next year so fingers crossed

Where mine went it was tennis (frequently national champions) and hockey (often in national finals). Girls selected for England team training etc. However there just were not enough girls to go round lots of sports to make teams when so much effort went into hockey and tennis. Sports where you couldn’t find teams to play against are just taught in PE lessons. That’s still sport.

I don’t see the need for sporting competition if you are not that sporty. It can be torture. Continuing to keep fit, enjoying playing sport in school with friends and having a variety of sport available is what counts. Turning out for a mediocre team isn’t much fun in the middle of winter. The non sporty never became sporty. They just became reasonably fit!

have a dd just going into y8 at a co-ed independent.

had the whole "sports is v inclusive here talk" before they started but totally untrue! dd is actually v sporty so has been fine in A teams and B teams for hockey and netball. But quite often the school only fields those 2 teams (for girls sport at least) which means that 30-40 girls haven't represented the school at all. Ever. Which means that those girls now refer to themselves as "not being sporty" which is just plain wrong.

It is all just so self fulfilling. They identified the 'sporty' kids quickly and those kids got extra coaching which means the other kids will find it v hard to break into the squads.

I think the boys do better with A-D teams playing routinely

had the whole "sports is v inclusive here talk" before they started but totally untrue! dd is actually v sporty so has been fine in A teams and B teams for hockey and netball. But quite often the school only fields those 2 teams (for girls sport at least) which means that 30-40 girls haven't represented the school at all. Ever. Which means that those girls now refer to themselves as "not being sporty" which is just plain wrong.

Yes - that hits the nail on the head. And yes, I have one of those girls who identified herself as non-sporty in mid-primary school. I have had to do a lot of cajoling to keep her doing sports to this stage and luckily found a friendly, not-particularly competitive sports club for her to join. It's nonsense that she is not-sporty - she's perfectly adequate (as are most children) and has some great skills in some areas. When she plays - she enjoys it and loves the camaraderie of being in a team. It might not be enough to keep her doing it now that she compares herself even more with the 'sporty-girls' at school.

There would be uproar if academic lessons had set-in-stone sets from week one of Year 7 and those pupils received extra tuition and opportunities to improve their grades.

OP - agree entirely.

also have a ds who is less enthusiastic about sport - but he has gone to an all boys school which fields teams A-F where possible. The enjoyment and pride he has got by being an active member of the D team for rugby is quite something. These kids just need to be encouraged to join in.

I posted years ago about this from a different angle in that ds was regularly excluded from all sports teams in primary school and so concluded he was rubbish. We managed to keep the martial arts going outside school which helped his confidence and now he is luckily in the right place.

Best of luck with your dd. Sounds like a good approach.