Would you be a bit surprised at this?

[haggisaggis]

dd's small primary has advsied that her class will be doing mountain biking in school this week. It will mean going up and down ramps in the playground. dd has afew mild coordination problems and finds cycling difficult at the best of times - she hated the cycle training they did in school previously. She really does not want to do the mountainbiking and I asked if she could opt out. Have been told she can't as it forms part of their PE allocation this week. Does this not see a bit strange? Mountain biking is not a main stream activity and I would have thought you should be able to opt out if you don't want to do it. ANy views?

I would tell the school, your DD does not want to partake as she has mild coordination problems and is worried about it. That should be the end of it. Sounds fun though!

I've tried that - she's still to do it. (I thought she would enjoy it but when I mentioned it she got quite uspet which is when I asked to opt out)

Don't send her in that day.

Excuse me, but whose child is she? Tell them she will not be doing it!

Ridiculous.

What I reckon is the issue is that they plan to use it as non contact time for the teacher - so if dd doesn't do it they will have staffing issues (it's a tiny village school - staff get juggled around). Am glad you all find it surprising too!

Sounds like a brilliant enrichment activity to me and one that, probably, costs a fair bit of money.

If properly run, I wouldn't be surprised if she gets a lot out of it (should be much more relaxed than cycle training).

If it's just a local club, I'd worry a lot more.

Any one experienced in working in schools should know that not all DCs are comfortable on bikes.

Makes no odds whether she's on a bike or is standing watching with regard to staffing issues. She will just need to put her coat, hat & gloves on and go and watch the others. She might even be able to have a ride on the flat - if she wants.

I am not sure if it good to teach a child it can say no towards a school related learning activity. PE is part of the curriculum.

What's next? Saying no to Maths because she may not like the subject they do at the moment?

I hated PE as a child but my mum would never have dreamt of giving an excuse not to do it.

Perhaps it will help her, it may be fun, let her join in, cycling is a great skill

Nora - dd will have to do it - my surprise is more the school using mountain biking as an everyday PE activity. I absolutely agree thta kids shouldn't be excused from main school activities just because they don't like it - but mountain biking to me is not a"normal" PE activity and if you are uncomfortable about taking part you shouldn't have to.

It is amazing that the school is offering mountain biking never mind making it compulsory. I would write a note saying you expressly forbid your daughter to take part and ask for a guarantee in writing that she won't. Or else you will be contacting the local authority re health and safety issues. I would think that no way in law could a school force a child to take part in this. But I don't know for sure of course.

She took part. It was too difficult for her (even with very kind instructors) She ended up in tears and now feels really humiliated.

That's horrid, haggis. WHat about children who can't even ride a bike at all due to coordination difficulties? Ds couldn't ride a bike til 11, hates it and never does it now. Your poor dd.

Awww poor dd :-( Try and reinforce how proud you are that she gave it a go x

I do understand how hard it is to see your dd upset but try to keep it in perspective. All children find aspects of school difficult and learning to deal with challenge and even failure is an important part of education. Hope she is ok

I agree with overdecorated. Of course it's difficult to see our children struggle with something, but you can't go through life 'opting out' of activities because you think you are not going to like them. It was part of what they were doing for their PE - fantastic opportunity to introduce a new sport to lots of children. Not everyone is going to be good at it, but everyone is 'not very good' at something, and it doesn't mean it's a reason to opt out of it.

She has co-ordination difficulties.

She can't ride a bike properly on the flat.

She was justifiably scared.

Of course making her ride up and down ramps was going to be a recipe for disaster

It was something she was clearly going to be able to do and not something she was going to learn anything good from. All she has learnt here is that when you tell people your fears - no one listens to you :(

You don't tell a child that can't swim they have to get in a pool by jumping off the diving board do you? No - first of all you teach them to swim.

It was something she was clearly NOT going to be able to do

It's a strange activity to do as a compulsory thing at primary school, I think. My DCs would be unable to do it under any circumstances - neither of them can ride a bike at all, let alone attempt a mountain-biking course. What did/would the school do with children like them?

(and before anyone says it, yes, I know riding a bike is a useful life skill, but DS also has coordination difficulties/possible dyspraxia, so didn't get the hang of it despite repeated efforts, just got increasingly upset and frustrated; DD has had a few goes, didn't really get it, and we don't have anywhere safe for her to practice as our garden is tiny, & our road is inner city/parked cars/narrow bumpy pavements with trees. I learnt to ride a bike at 17 just in time to go off to a very bike-dependent university.)

Understand some children find this difficult, but other children struggle in other areas, such as swimming. You cannot opt out of everything that is difficult.

When I did swimming with school, me and another boy sat in the 10cm deep bit and splashed a it, trying to not have panic meltdowns at that.

I was lucjy that my year was missed out for cycling proficiency, because I on,y learned to ride a bike as a teenager. This would have been a nightmare and they would have had a screaming hyperventilating kicking me to deal with (I used to just totally lose it in blind panic with this kind of thing)

Your poor dd :-(

youngmother - so you'd make a non swimmer jump in the deep end off a diving board would you?

My dd can't write properly. She is terrible at it. Occupational therapy, special writing books, numerous pencil grips. She has to do it at school though as its the curriculum. People can't be good at everything.

Youngermother1 - with swimming, as with most other things in school, there are groups for different ability levels and differentiation for children working at different levels.

Making all children do a mountain-biking course is like insisting an entire year 2 class works on level 4 maths questions, when half of them are working at level 1. Or insisting that beginner swimmers do ten lengths of the pool without armbands. It would be impossible and unreasonable to expect them to even try.

The reasonable thing would have been to offer several different bike-related activities for children with different skill levels, but from what the OP has said, everyone had to do the same thing, no matter how far above their actual ability level it was. Very poor teaching practice, in my opinion.