Why do so many of our olympic athletes come from public school?

[ivykaty44]

and what would you do to change it?

I am really sporty now (i run, race, mountain bike and i did judo at university and jiu jitsu through my 20s)

BUT i went to a state school and did NO sport through high school, it was only when i went to a 'posh' university with mainly private school students that i took up sports and realised what i'd missed.

I had some opportunities do to sport but no encouragement and the big difference was my friend at private school HAD to do either rowing, hockey or cadets (rugby, rowing or cadets for boys) whereas nobody really encouraged certainly didn't force us to do any sport outside of PE lessons so we didn't.

Outside of school i did a lot at Guides and so stayed active and tried loads of sports but none to competition level - thankfully the confidence at trying new things i got through Guides was what allowed me to take up a brand new sport at uni. but i wish i'd done more sport through secondary school (particularly swimming, i was good as a child but never got my technique back after giving up age about 13).

My sons are now qualified cricket coaches they go back to their old primary to coach cricket after school. They take the club kit along and do it for free.
A lady goes in and does short tennis but parents have to pay for that because she does it for a living.
The HT and a dad do the football.
A teacher sorts out the cross country, netball and dance.
The whole school (not Year R) go swimming every week.

I think the 'all must have prizes' thing is a bit exaggerated along the lines of 'oh you're not allowed to say black coffee any more'. I've seen races at sports day: the winner is always very clear. Mind you, they don't give out prizes, which, come to think of it, would be a bit odd.

wigglybeezer I don't know what you are talking about.

Flatpackhmaster, I have to agree about winning, dc want to win and how can you strive to get better if you can't win?

TheOriginalSteamingNit

I think the 'all must have prizes' thing is a bit exaggerated along the lines of 'oh you're not allowed to say black coffee any more'.

If only it were exaggerated. Then we could all laugh at the idiocy of it.

I've seen races at sports day: the winner is always very clear. Mind you, they don't give out prizes, which, come to think of it, would be a bit odd.

Why would it be odd? The winners should know they're winners. And I say this as a child who hated sports, was awful at sports and was only in the cricket team because I was the scorer.

yellowraincoat

How do you change culture to take part in sport regardless of background?

Get rid of private schools. Simple.

It'll certainly change the culture, in the same way that Mao changed the culture of China by killing 100 million people and Stalin dealt with the rebellious Kulaks and Cossacks by having them deported and shot.

Well handing out prizes: what would they be? You get a prize at speech day, a voucher or something, but I don't think most schools would use their limited resources to give presents at sports days. You get a sticker saying 1 at primary, and you get to go on the podium at secondary, at my girls' schools anyway. They certainly know if they've won!

Oh come on: getting rid of private schools = killing thousands of people?

Xenia's post is in this thread, although it's says "more like" 50% of Olympic participants, not a precise figure.

Interestingly, football has 7 percent players from private school backgrounds (well, so says the guardian today). So why does it work for football and not other sports?
Parent involvement and interest?
Cheap at entry level?
Easy to play on a local team?
Cool for kids?

Or just the fact you might go professional and earn squillions?

here is a simple medal on a ribbon for 75p For winner of each race?

DontEatTheVolesKids - thank you for explaining.

flatpackhamster, that is a shocking thing to say. Utterly disgusting.

I think maybe American big team sports are all very reflective of general population profile.
But take something like Sailing, supremely elitist in the USA, too.

Ivy, you are coming across as rude, you are the one who asked about the thread, I was trying to remember what Xenia said in case I had misrepresented what she was saying.

Wigglybeezer did you even read my disclaimer?

Or just couldn't wait to tell me how great your state school is... Sigh

I didn't know about the other thread, I think that was the problem and why I didn't understand

Well yes, I suppose you could give out medals. I think stickers do the job ok, and I know at secondary they get quite excited about the podium though, so I'm not fussed that they don't get a 75p medal!

Don'teatthevoles, it wasn't that thread it was the "I send my kids to private school because" thread ( which I wish I had resisted reading).

In the eighties, the HT of my comp went a bit off the rails and decided we would only do traditional learning in the mornings, and that we would start up an 'afternoon activities' programme after lunch. At the time, we thought it was pretty cool, because we could go sailing (on a reservoir), kayaking, swimming, play chess, do d.ofe., head out to adventure club and build rafts on the river, learn one of three or four languages that weren't on the curriculum (we had French, German, and briefly Russian as options on the curriculum), art clubs of different varieties, mates club etc etc, athletics club, cross country, different team games (in additional to the pe that was timetabled).

Until much later, I hadn't realized quite how 'different' this guy was. Or the opportunities he opened up for the bog standard kids in bog standard town on low income. My mum was a cleaner, and I got to go sailing twice a week, and race for the school in regattas.

He had a breakdown after a couple of years and was asked to leave, and the whole thing was diluted. But v progressive.

Wouldn't happen now.

The rich can afford to send their kids to after school sports clubs etc, afford to pay for expensive kit, afford a car to drive them to venues, afford to have time off work to support them etc.

Such is life.

My daughters first school (still have a three tier system here so up to age 9) do a non competitive sports day which basically involves about 10 non events being set up in a circle and groups of bored children rotating around each 'event'. Events include throwing bean bags into hoops. Repeatedly. Dribbling a football around cones and other complete wastes of time. Once all groups have participated in each event they all get a round of applause from the bored parents and receive a medal for taking part, some kind of arbitrary test is applied and one 'house' is declared the 'winner' and they receive an extra breaktme. Just this year the head teacher sent out a letter saying there had been some interest from parents in doing a proper competitive sports day with actual races and winners, Mr BC and I voted firmly in favour and were very disappointed to see that only 24% of parents had voted to change the format to a more competitive one, with the head teacher citing reasons such as the children would get bored waiting for their turn.

How we expect to produce Olympic athletes when the attitude of our state schools is 'oh we don't want the poor little diddums having to wait their turn and they'll be sooo sad if they come last'. It's one of my huge bugbears abou the school I send my daughter to but unfortunately it seems to be the norm around here, children need to compete against each other, my DD is IMO a good runner but as she doesn't get the chance to 'beat' other kids she doesn't believe that she is a good runner and refused to entertain going to a running club to give it a go as she didn't believe she'd be any good. If she had been beating her peers for years in sports days instead of tossing another fucking beanbag into a hoop she might have had a bit more condfidence in her abilities and developed them.

Sorry moshling, I meant to confirm that you were right to qualify your statement, I am a slow typist but should have written more to avoid sounding blunt.

I know there are some schools that do this, benedicts, and agree that it's a mistake. If it is any comfort, you may find that at the next tier, this changes: ours did the boring ooh way to throw that beanbag stuff until KS2, then a proper one.

Does the prizes for all culture exist in the secondary sector, it hasn't IME although it has done at primary