DS (age 8) was only child not 'chosen' for football team, so sent 'down' to play with year below at games?

[Legacy]

Surely this can't be good/right?

DS (who is 8) says that in his (small) class 7 of the boys were chosen for a football match next week, and that he was the only one excluded, so in Games today he was told to go and play with the year below as his class were practicisng for the match

If that's true, I am
How could they exclude just one child out of 8? Why couldn't they just rotate substitutes?
I am doubly as he is youngest in class and has self-confidence/ self esteem issues as it is. We have been having discussions with the school already about 'working together to build his confidence' - pah!

You say it cannot be avoided but actually it can. We were living in Scotland just before DS went to school. Their cut off is the end of Feb so the oldest child in the year has a March birthday.

This means when they start in August (as they do up there) the youngest child is at least 4.5. Whereas in England, the youngest child may literally have just turned 4 the wek before starting school.

I think it makes a huge difference tbh and it opened my eyes to how easily we could change down here and avoid so many of these problems.

Yes, you are always going to get some kids who are almost 1yr older than others but waiting until they're at least 4.5 seemed to make a huge difference.

My DS is a September boy. There is no way he would have coped with going to school the year before. No way. To think that if he'd been born just 10days earlier that would have been the case makes me shudder.

Leaving out one child was wholly inappropriate. However, at least school has acknowledged it and hopefully you can work together to boost your DS's self-esteem.