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Original poster

Football banned

11 replies

swedishmum · 20/06/2005 23:40

Football has been banned at ds's primary school till Sept as it's "out of season".
I appreciate they are trying to encourage children to play in other ways but have concerns on a number of levels. I'd really appreciate any input.
Many thanks.

PS All female staff at school...Don't know if it's relevant

OP posts:

hana · 20/06/2005 23:48

football can sometimes take over a playground - if boys or girls don't like football and i's the only thing on offer out there - plus the area where they play takes up a lot of room it leaves the others kind of on the sidelines.
I am a teacher and it causes lots and lots of problmes. OK if you like it and play and enjoy it, but so many of the younger kids and pretty much all of the girls are excluded, this is despite trying lots of different things to include everyone. maybe banning it until sept was bit harsh, but the idea I think is a good one,, - maybe have alternate weeks or a designated 'footie day' or something? we still haven't managed to sort it out at my school so will watch and maybe bring back some ideas

QueenEagle · 20/06/2005 23:57

Ban it, ban it, ban it, ban it, ban it, ban it, ban it.

Sick and tired of ds's coming home with dirty/torn trousers and scuffed shoes.

Have sent him to school in shorts and have resorted to buying cheap school shoes.

Those that don't want to play it must get pretty fed up too of getting hit by the footballs, getting knocked over by the boys whizzing around without looking where they're going because all they can focus on is the ball and the general frenzy that playing it seems to create.

I would support a designated football day (bit harsh to ban it completely imo) and encourage the kids to learn/enjoy other activities.

MarsLady · 21/06/2005 00:08

we have a designated footie area at the far end of the playground. We also have a fair few girls that play as well and a thriving footie club!

Original poster

swedishmum · 21/06/2005 00:24

The school has a huge site for the 140 kids there. Health and safety doesn't come into it according to management. Football training for years 3 - 6 still goes on after school on Wednesday for interested kids.
I can see how football takes over (being an experienced primary and secondary teacher plus mum of 4). However, I think that this decision is creating more problems than it solves. I know football isn't creative - I'm really not a fan - but a lot of the games to replace it seem to require zilch creativity but make life easy for dinner staff, one of whom wears a t shirt with "Not tonight, I'm watching footy" emblazoned on it. Obviously not at school (or maybe she's going for literary irony...).

OP posts:

roisin · 21/06/2005 19:08

You say they have lots of space, do they have a designated 'football space'.

I'm always surprised at dss' primary school at how much space football takes up, and how it impinges on all the other children in the playground even before school. We don't have a lot of space.
KS2 playground has 240 children on it. I would say usually about 20-40 boys are playing football at any one time, and monopolising about 50% of the space!
If you don't have a separate, contained space for football players it can cause big problems for all the other children.

That's not a moan about our school btw; they have limitations as to when they can or cannot play football, and it's not a problem.

coppertop · 21/06/2005 19:12

At ds1's school football isn't allowed in the infants playground. It's allowed in the junior playground but only on designated days.

Gobbledigook · 21/06/2005 19:16

Do you mean they are not allowed to play it in the playground in break times??

I'm sorry, but I think that's ridiculous. Nanny state or what?

Gobbledigook · 21/06/2005 19:16

Just read some of the other responses about how it can only be played on designated days etc!! I can this school malarky is really going to get me wound up

cazzybabs · 21/06/2005 19:35

The school I teach at doesn't allow football in the summer term - but encourages the boys to play other sports, such as cricket. I think its good for them to have a change and prehaps mx with different kids (it does happen!).

Original poster

swedishmum · 21/06/2005 23:17

Thanks for all the input.
I'd have less of an issue to be honest if there was an alternative like cricket, but the only team sport is rounders, a lunchtime supervisor insists on bowling and moans when someone hits the ball too far...
I may suggest the designated day - sounds a good compromise. It could be restricted to half of the far field without taking space away from any other games.
Imo there has always been a bit of an issue - when I used to do netball (voluntarily) after school I always felt our children had less of a chance because unlike other local schools, they were not allowed to practise shooting at lunchtime.

OP posts:

lucy5 · 21/06/2005 23:37

Football causes so many problems at my school. We have designated days for designated years in designated areas, we also have a non football day. Non of these measures stop squabbles, fights between friends years, sexes and year groups. I spend three quarters of my playground duty dealing with this. The kids who don't want to play just hang around the sidelines. I absolutely detest playground duty and wish they would ban football. Kids try to skip lunch to play, we have organised other activities which are never as popular because football is lurking. End of term is coming and hope all the balls dont get punctured over the hols, hahahaha [demonic emtion]

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