Sorry, meant to say GIRLS’ SPORT AT SCHOOL!
Has anybody had any experience where school thinks your child is worse at sport than they are? We’ve had something quite upsetting happen and I’m worried it’s going to really put off our DD:
In year 3 our junior school divides the kids into different groups for different days of sport based on swimming ability. DD has been put in the less able group even though her swimming reports have so far always said she’s strong at it. Also, our DD has done swimming externally until very recently and her teacher has always said she was really good too. My DD isn’t someone with a lot of self esteem at the moment and is very sensitive, and I’m honestly worried it’s sending her the message really early that she’s not good at sport, particularly sad since she (and we) all thought she was a really decent swimmer. (This bit isn’t the school’s responsibility but it doesn’t help either that literally all her friends are on the other day.)
I’m going to ask the teacher why, but in the meantime I wonder if anyone has any advice? It’s so important for girls not to be put off sport!
(Incidentally my older son was also out in the worse group for sports but somehow it didn’t matter so much because he was just obviously not that good and so it never bothered him - he worked hard on improving some specific sports and now has a couple of things he enjoys. In fact the whole thing with DD seems so unexpected and weird that we’re wondering if the school is sort of assuming DD won’t be any good because of DS? Unlikely I know but it’s just weird…)