Any ideas on how to support a non sporty 10 year old boy always picked last in PE?

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DS is in tears.Nothing I'm saying is cutting it.

I know how it feels.

Told him he's lucky to be so good at so many things.He's a bright,academic,bit geeky,hates football and PE(is good at cycling,hiking and swimming).

Hate seeing him so upset.What can I say to make it better?

Maggiemight, I'm also planning to take my DS running, not because it will speed him up, but just to try and instill some enjoyment of sport/exercise. I run very slowly and I was also the last to be picked at school. I never thought I'd do any voluntary exercise once I was out of school. Running isn't competitive, you're only up against yourself unless you start getting into actual races, so for a child who isn't into competitive sports it's great.

Yes, Lynda, I'm not sure how easy it would be to improve a child's athleticism but they pick up other things so quickly at this age I thought maybe they can get fit relatively easily too, compared to adults that is.

Can you imagine schools doing this in an academic context ?

Grouping for ability is one thing and I find children very accepting of ability levels grouped by the teacher, allowing other children to pick teams themselves feels very different to the children.

Definitely a firm letter/email to the head pointing out how antiquated this is, preferably with some research and examples (must be something out there online).

My ds1 is nearly 8 and really slow at running - he often gets upset about it and being the slowest in his class by far. I've pointed out running isnt the be all and end all. I enrolled him for karate and he's doing great at that - and he loves cycling and playing hockey so I keep pointing out that he's great at other stuff.

I'd definitely be having a word very soon with the teacher.

To have a child feeling that upset due to something that's in a teacher's standard practice is really not good.

I was always last to be chosen and it was horrible. What worked for me, and stopped me completely disengaging from sport, was out of school activities. Are there any clubs he's be up for joining? Either directly sporting or generally active, like Cubs?

I never post in this section but I just wanted to send solidarity to your son. I was also the last to be picked for games week in week out and know how soul destroying it is. How anyone can say team games are character building I do not know!

I agree with the others about individual sports - really push his cycling, could a bit of golf or tennis help with hand eye coordination?

Re the teaching of sports, I've heard of said that the best teachers are those who struggled with a subject can be best as they understand what it is to struggle with a subject
But PE teachers are never crap at sport, are they?

We haven't let students pick teams for years around here. Either it's the teacher walking down the middle of a group of students to divide them in half, or drawing a number/colour out of a hat, or any other possible form of random selection that the teacher chooses to come up. I still remember being picked last as a kid, so I'd never do it for any group of my students.

"But PE teachers are never crap at sport, are they?"

The PE teacher at my DCs school isn't the athletic sort. She has just set up an after school multi sport club purely aimed at children who struggle with sport, the ones that don't get picked.

Taffeta - she sounds great and more sympathetic than some I've met

DAisybell - this is in Primary Education though - it won't be a "PE teacher" it will be the class teacher who has the same likelihood of any member of the population at being great/good/average/below average/dire at sport.

I too cannot believe that this is going on in schools still, and I've been teaching for 27 years quite a long time.

Have a word.

I was always last picked in team sports ( which I hated)

My parents took me to club level swimming training out of school to develop that, and tried to give me opportunities for skiing -both sports I could do.

I soon learned that the school focussed on team sports and since it really wasn't my thing, I became unbothered about my lack of popularity as a team member in pe.

Really help him with the sports he can do, and actively look into any more - other watersports for example.

And teach him that we can't all be good at everything and it's ok and human to have weaknesses.

No ability groups for PE.

Parents evening next week,will have a word.

The general view seems to be that you have grounds for complaint against the schools system It prejuces your child.