Team sports and home ed

[Nigglenaggle]

We are only just at the start of deciding whether we will home ed or not. One of the disadvantages we have been discussing is the lack of the opportunity that school educated children get to try a range of team sports. DC is very active and this is definitely something he would enjoy. Obviously it is far from the most important thing to consider but just curious as to what others do, if you don't mind telling me

There are loads of opportunities for team sports where I am, and I live in a village. There's football, cricket, bowls and netball. School children do team sports outside of school hours as well. Of course, you'll have to pay for it but it's usually not that expensive. Everything children get in school, you can get through HE :)

I guess it depends where you live a bit.... But for us one of the good things about home ed has been more time and flexibility to do sports. My children have done (at various times) home ed sessions or after school sessions in basketball, football, tennis, multi-sports, water polo, ice skating/hockey, karate, swimming, street dance, fencing, diving and gymnastics.

For the most part I think there are similar sporting opportunities for HE and schooled children. There are some things which are lacking in each environment, but unless your child feels very strongly about it, I shouldn't think it would make much difference.

One thing which is very hard for schoolchildren to get is enough time to participate at a very competitive level without sacrificing every last scrap of free time. For instance, I know several HE children who do gymnastics 4.5 hours a day on weekdays and 6 hours on Saturday. Looking on from the outside I think this seems like a huge amount, and their mum does feel it has taken over the family's lives somewhat, but on reflection they are only spending as much time on gymnastics as other kids spend on school, and they do still find time to relax and do other things. But their teammates who have that schedule on top of school - just imagine!!!

The flip side for us is that my HE teen has found as she gets older there are fewer and fewer opportunities to do sports in a very amateurish way. It was fine when she was little and nearly everyone else was the same, but not anymore. Older schoolchildren have so little time on their hands that they tend to focus down on just a few hobbies which they are really good at, rather than potter around. Where does that leave a teenager who would like to turn up to a football session once a week and kick a ball around rather badly? We did once find a football group which allowed her to join in with much younger children, but that is rare. She has repeatedly felt the need to go in for rather obscure sports which others of her age might be taking up for the first time (fencing, girls' cricket) rather than mainstream sports where the others will run rings round her. I think she would like a school PE-type session, though we all know there can be horrible aspects to school PE! It is a pretty minor problem though.

The provision for team sports in most state schools is woefully inadequate nowadays. 1 hour a week in KS2 is pathetic imho for PE. That hour covers dance, gym, swimming etc and is divided into 2 30 minute sessions. It's something I looked into as I didn't realise at first why some DS's OT programme couldn't just be covered in PE lessons.

My son's sporty friends when he was at school all did their team sports stuff at after school or Saturday clubs. Some state primary schools offer a lot in terms of after school team sport stuff, others none at all depending on the interests of the staff & parents.

In the Independent sector team sports seem to be a Key part of many public schools sales points nowadays. A very few state schools have specialist sports status too.

imho you are more likely to have the time to do a team sport seriously if you home ed than if you state educate in most instances.

As a home edder you are more likely to be allowed to join in afterschool activities at a variety of state schools. If your child attends state school you are restricted to clubs of the school your child attends. This is something I've only just found out. Potentially it gives you more choice .

Hello OP.

We have found that anything the LEA offers at county level i.e sports clubs, music services are accessible to H.ed
It was one of the deciding factors with us as dd is a keen musician and wanted to keep her groups and ensembles.
As well as joining new groups and organisations she has made more friends too.
I would email or call the head of the relevant sevice you require.
Obviously if they are run by the school there may be a problem but even if they are held at a school and are county managed, there shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks guys that's reassuring The more we think about it the more we think we would like to keep them at home... Just don't like the way the system is going - more homework, considering longer school days... Doesn't leave much time for childhood... But don't want them to feel that they are missing out... Worried about doing it for our reasons rather than theirs, if that makes sense..

Leaving aside the question of sports, you mentioned that you expect your your child to enjoy sports because he is very active. It occurs to me that in general, school is not an easy place for an active child to spend his days!! So many behaviours which are easy to tolerate (or even embrace) outside of school cannot be allowed at school.

I do understand your worries that your agenda might not be the same as that of your child, and that while you think long days and lots of homework are undesirable your child might think otherwise. Was that what you meant? A simple answer to that might be to let him decide for himself whether to go to school. Nearly all the HE parents I know do that with their older children. Possibly not with younger children; opinions vary on whether a very young child has the necessary perspective to know what he needs.

But in the first instance you may as well start off with whatever you think your child is likely to need. If it isn't right, he'll soon let you know, and then you can either tinker with your existing provision or try something entirely different, such as school.

Yes that's just what I meant. We've started thinking about this quite early, so time to mull it over, (plus any number of things may change) and guess we don't actually have to decide until the last minute. Plenty of food for thought here anyway.

Thanks all who replied. A nice bunch of MNers here in the home ed section I've noticed