School club unfairness

[Mumsjc2013]

So I’m looking for some opinions as I’m not sure how I feel about this.

A list of clubs went out at my DS school - all apart from ballet are for year 1 and up (he is in reception) which is fine. I would like him to do football but starting in year 1 was fine with me.

I am, however, on the dreaded Facebook parents page. Gradually I started noticing the odd comment about children doing football club - ‘what do they need’, ‘do any other parents watch’ etc.

Obviously, a little bemused, I contacted the school office to confirm what year group football club was for. After waiting over a day for a response I was told “the football is run by an outside group and the person in charge may have made some exceptions to allow some reception children join”. The club is not advertised at the school in this way.

Is this not unfair? I thought schools subscribe to equal opportunities and I feel this is unacceptable.

Am I being unreasonable?

You lost me a bit at "I waited over a day". Seriously?!

Anyway I would tread carefully. There's a world you don't know about the lives of other children at school. It's possible that there are all sorts of "legit" reasons for this - pupil premium, recent adoption, some sort of family crisis like a dying parent, severely disabled sibling. Reasons why a particular child might really benefit from an extracurricular and can't get it any other way. And it is never the business of other families at the school.

Or, it could be the child of the PTA Chair.

Going off some experience, the organiser might have intended not to offer to reception but couldn’t say no to the parents who contacted (probably insisting their child having done every possible football club they could before the age of 1 etc and so would be fine!)